Reliability analysis of fatigue crack growth for rail steel under variable amplitude service loading conditions and wear

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of variable amplitude service loading conditions and wear phenomenon on reliability analysis for rail steel. For this purpose, the rail with the exact geometry of the profile in the railway systems and the boundary element method has been used. Also, the geometry correction functions of the five cracks, as a function of a crack size are determined by using nonlinear regression analysis estimating the statistical descriptors of the five geometry correction functions. Fatigue reliability is evaluated for each failure mode due to multiple site fatigue cracks propagation in rail steel.

Automated summary

The paper examines the impact of variable amplitude service loading conditions and wear phenomenon on the reliability analysis of rail steel. It utilizes the exact geometry of rail profiles in railway systems and the boundary element method to evaluate fatigue reliability for each failure mode caused by multiple site fatigue cracks propagation in rail steel.