Experimental and numerical study on fretting wear and fatigue of full-scale railway axles

Abstract

This study investigated the fretting wear and fatigue of full-scale railway axles. Fatigue tests were conducted on full-scale railway axles, and the fretting wear and fretting fatigue in the fretted zone of the railway axles were analysed. Three-dimensional finite element models were established based on the experimental results. Then, multi-axial fatigue parameters and a linear elastic fracture mechanics-based approach were used to investigate the fretting fatigue crack initiation and propagation, respectively, in which the role of the fretting wear was taken into account. The experimental and simulated results showed that the fretted zone could be divided into zones I–III according to the surface damage morphologies. Fretting wear alleviated the stress concentration near the wheel seat edge and resulted in a new stress concentration near the worn/unworn boundary in zone II, which greatly promoted the fretting crack initiation at the inner side of the fretted zone. Meanwhile, the stress concentration also increased the equivalent stress intensity factor range ΔK _eq below the mating surface, and thus promoted the propagation of fretting fatigue crack. Based on these findings, the effect of the stress redistribution resulting from fretting wear is suggested to be taken into account when evaluating the fretting fatigue in railway axles.

References

[1.] Maedler K, Geburtig T, Ullrich D. An experimental approach to determining the residual lifetimes of wheelset axles on a full-scale wheel-rail roller test rig. Int J Fatigue 2016, 86 58-63

[2.] Zerbst U, Beretta S, Köhler G, Lawton A, Vormwald M, Beier HT, Klinger C, Černý I, Rudlin J, Heckel T. Safe life and damage tolerance aspects of railway axles—a review. Eng Fract Mech 2013, 98 1 214-271

[3.] Pourheidar A, Regazzi D, Cervello S, Foletti S, Beretta S. Fretting fatigue analysis of full-scale railway axles in presence of artificial micro-notches. Tribol Int 2020, 150 106383

[4.] Zhai W, Han Z, Chen Z, Ling L, Zhu S. Train-track-bridge dynamic interaction: a state-of-the-art review. Veh Syst Dyn 2019, 57 7 984-1027

[5.] Foletti S, Beretta S, Gurer G. Defect acceptability under full-scale fretting fatigue tests for railway axles. Int J Fatigue 2016, 86 34-43

[6.] Zhu C, He J, Peng J, Ren Y, Lin X, Zhu M. Failure mechanism analysis on railway wheel shaft of power locomotive. Eng Fail Anal 2019, 104 25-38

[7.] Gürer G, Gür CH. Failure analysis of fretting fatigue initiation and growth on railway axle press-fits. Eng. Failure Anal 2017, 84 151-166

[8.] BS EN 13103. Railway applications–wheelsets and bogies–design method for axles with external journals 2017 London BSI

[9.] BS EN 13104–2009 + A2–2012 Railway applications–wheelsets and bogies–powered axles–design method, BSI, London

[10.] JIS E4501-1995 Railway rolling stock – design methods for strength of axles, JSA, Tokyo

[11.] Hirakawa K, Toyama K, Kubota M. The analysis and prevention of failure in railway axles. Int J Fatigue 1998, 20 2 135-144

[12.] Smith RA, Hillmansen S. A brief historical overview of the fatigue of railway axles. Proc Inst Mech Eng Part F: J Rail Rapid Transit 2004, 218 4 267-277

[13.] Zeng D, Zhang Y, Lu L, Zou L, Zhu S. Fretting wear and fatigue in press-fitted railway axle: a simulation study of the influence of stress relief groove. Int J Fatigue 2019, 118 225-236

[14.] Iyer K. Peak contact pressure, cyclic stress amplitudes, contact semi-width and slip amplitude: relative effects on fretting fatigue life. Int J Fatigue 2001, 23 3 193-206

[15.] Song C, Shen MX, Lin XF, Liu DW, Zhu MH. An investigation on rotatory bending fretting fatigue damage of railway axles. Fatigue Fract Eng Mater Struct 2013, 37 1 72-84

[16.] Hattori T, Kawai S, Okamoto N, Sonobe T. Torsional fatigue strength of a shrink fitted shaft. Bull. JSME 1981, 24 197 1893-1900

[17.] Zou L, Zeng D, Wang J, Lu L, Li Y, Zhang Y. Effect of plastic deformation and fretting wear on the fretting fatigue of scaled railway axles. Int J Fatigue 2020, 132 105371

[18.] Zhang Y, Lu L, Gong Y, Zhang J, Zeng D. Fretting wear-induced evolution of surface damage in press–fitted shaft. Wear 2017, 384 131-141

[19.] Zhang Y, Lu L, Gong Y, Zeng D, Zhang J. Finite element modeling and experimental validation of fretting wear scars in press-fitted shaft with open zone. Tribol Trans 2017, 61 4 585-595

[20.] Zhang YB, Lu LT, Zou L, Zeng DF, Zhang JW. Finite element simulation of the influence of fretting wear on fretting crack initiation in press-fitted shaft under rotating bending. Wear 2018, 400–401 177-183

[21.] Ishiduka H, Kubota M, Sakae C, Kondo Y, Sato Y, Makino K. Evaluation of fatigue crack propagation property on the wheelseat of normalized axles for narrow gauge line vehicles. J Soc Mater Sci Jpn 2006, 55 6 550-557

[22.] Martínez JC, Useche LVV, Wahab MA. Numerical prediction of fretting fatigue crack trajectory in a railway axle using XFEM. Int J Fatigue 2017, 100 32-49

[23.] Gutkin R, Alfredsson B. Growth of fretting fatigue cracks in a shrink-fitted joint subjected to rotating bending. Eng Fail Anal 2008, 15 5 582-596

[24.] Ekberg A. Fretting fatigue of railway axles—a review of predictive methods and an outline of a finite element model. Proc Inst Mech Eng Part F: J Rail Rapid Transit 2004, 218 4 299-316

[25.] Erena D, Vázquez J, Navarro C, Talemi R. Numerical study on the influence of artificial internal stress relief groove on fretting fatigue in a shrink-fitted assembly. Tribol Int 2020, 151 106443

[26.] BS EN 13260–2009 Railway applications—wheelsets and bogies—wheelsets—product requirements, BSI, London

[27.] Cervello S. Fatigue properties of railway axles: new results of full-scale specimens from Euraxles project. Int J Fatigue 2016, 86 2-12

[28.] Makino T, Sakai H, Kozuka C, Yamazaki Y, Yamamoto M, Minoshima K. Overview of fatigue damage evaluation rule for railway axles in Japan and fatigue property of railway axle made of medium carbon steel. Int J Fatigue 2020, 132 105361

[29.] Abaqus User Manual (2014). Abaqus Theory Guide. Version 6.14. USA: Dassault Systemes Simulia Corp

[30.] Zheng JF, Luo JL, Peng JF, Jin XS. Fretting wear behaviors of a railway axle steel. Tribol Int 2010, 43 5 906-911

[31.] Bertini L, Santus C. Fretting fatigue tests on shrink-fit specimens and investigations into the strength enhancement induced by deep rolling. Int J Fatigue 2015, 81 179-190

[32.] Rajasekaran R, Nowell D. On the finite element analysis of contacting bodies using submodelling. J Strain Anal Eng Des 2005, 40 2 95-106

[33.] Smith KN, Watson P, Topper TH. A stress-strain function for the fatigue of metals. J Mater 1970, 5 4 767-778

[34.] Fatemi A, Socie DF. A critical plane approach to multiaxial fatigue damage including out-of-phase loading. Fatigue Fract Eng Mater Struct 1988, 11 3 149-165

[35.] Luke M, Burdack M, Moroz S, Varfolomeev I. Experimental and numerical study on crack initiation under fretting fatigue loading. Int J Fatigue 2016, 86 24-33

[36.] Sum WS, Williams EJ, Leen SB. Finite element, critical-plane, fatigue life prediction of simple and complex contact configurations. Int J Fatigue 2005, 27 4 403-416

[37.] Makino T, Kato T, Hirakawa K. Review of the fatigue damage tolerance of high-speed railway axles in Japan. Eng Fract Mech 2011, 78 5 810-825

[38.] Wu SC, Xu ZW, Liu YX, Kang GZ, Zhang ZX. On the residual life assessment of high-speed railway axles due to induction hardening. Int J Rail Transp 2018, 6 4 218-232

[39.] Mai SH, Gravouil A, Nguyen-Tajan ML, Trollé B. Numerical simulation of rolling contact fatigue crack growth in rails with the rail bending and the frictional contact. Eng Fract Mech 2017, 174 196-206

[40.] Irwin GR. Fracture mechanics, in the book of structural mechanics 1958 New York Springer

[41.] Keisuke T. Fatigue crack propagation from a crack inclined to the cyclic tensile axis. Eng Fract Mech 1974, 6 493-507

[42.] Richard HA, Buchholz FG, Kullmer G, Schöllmann M. 2D- and 3D- mixed mode fracture criteria. Key Eng Mater 2003, 251–252 251-260

[43.] Richard HA, Schramm B, Schirmeisen NH. Cracks on mixed mode loading—theories, experiments, simulations. Int J Fatigue 2014, 62 93-103

[44.] Erdogan F, Sih G. On the crack extension in plates under plane loading and transverse shear. J Basic Eng 1963, 85 4 519-525

[45.] Sajith S, Murthy KSRK, Robi PS. Experimental and numerical investigation of mixed mode fatigue crack growth models in aluminum 6061–T6. Int J Fatigue 2020, 130 105285

[46.] Alshoaibi AM, Fageehi YA. 2D finite element simulation of mixed mode fatigue crack propagation for CTS specimen. J Mater Res Technol 2020, 9 4 7850-7861

[47.] Richard H, Fulland M, Sander M. Theoretical crack path prediction. Fatigue Fract Eng Mater Struct 2005, 28 1–2 3-12

Funding

State Key Laboratory of Traction Power (CN)(2018TPL_Z01); National Natural Science Foundation of China(51375406); Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(2682018CX68)