BEHAVIOUR OF THE STEEL AT THE POINT OF RAIL-WHEEL CONTACT - INTRODUCTORY STUDY ON THE CAUSES OF SHELLING CRACKS IN RAILS

This report reviews pertinent literature on the subject of shelling cracks in rail head. From the research conducted at the University of Illinois it is concluded that shelling cracks in rail heads are primarily due to fatigue under repeated rolling action. Obvious methods of reducing the development of shelling cracks would be to reduce wheel loads on the rails, to use larger diameter wheels or to use stronger rail steels. Future research should be directed towards the closing of the gap between standard fatigue data and the fatigue phenomenon as it occurs under contact stresses due to rolling action. At the moment, the prime difficulty in correlating tensile or torsion and rolling contact fatigue data stems from insufficient knowledge of stress distributions modified with respect to elastic theory by plastic deformation.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Question C53. Restrictions on the use of this document are contained in the explanatory material.
• Corporate Authors:

  International Union of Railways

  Office of Research and Experiments
  Utrecht,   Netherlands 
• Publication Date: 1961-10

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 10 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Defects; Fatigue (Mechanics); Fatigue (Physiological condition); Rail (Railroads); Shelling (Metals); Stresses; Technology
• Uncontrolled Terms: Contact stress
• Geographic Terms: Netherlands
• Old TRIS Terms: Question c53; Rail stress; Shelling; Shelling (Rails)
• Subject Areas: Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00040417
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: C53/RE 1/E
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 8 1994 12:00AM