Objective
The aim of the project is to understand the phenomena of contact fatigue in rails under severe conditions, in order to build a model that allows evaluation of influence of the main parameters that affect fatigue strength of rails. Because of the traffic increases, rails are more and more stressed and subjected to heavier loads. Some years ago, most of the failures occurred on defects initiated in-depth of the rail. Moreover, the increase of the locomotives' weight causes surface plastification that leads to new damage phenomena. The risk of rail fatigue and hence derailment due to traffic increase and the cost of maintenance led rail producers to increase the strength of the rail steel grades. By understanding the contact fatigue phenomenon and by building a model, new optimised steel grades could be found.
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
92800 PUTEAUX
France