Title: Fatigue analysis of railway freight car wheels under thermal loading conditions

Authors: T.J. Thomas, V.K. Garg, S. Nair

Addresses: Graduate Student, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, USA. ' Manager, Dynamics Research Division, Association of American Railroads, Chicago, Illinois, USA. ' Assistant Professor, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Abstract: When a wheel is subjected to repeated thermal loading due to drag braking cracks can develop and propagate due to fatigue. Wheels of 36, 33 and 28 inch diameter were studied using the finite-element method. The wheels were subjected to drag braking of 30, 40 and 50 hp, each applied for 30 minutes. The fatigue life was computed for an assumed load history using the Miner|s linear cumulative damage rule. The temperature distribution in the wheel was obtained by means of the DOT program. The CREEP-PLAST program was used to compute the stress and strain distributions. The stress and strain values increase as the braking horsepower is increased. For the same loading the fatigue life is lower for the smaller wheels as compared to the fatigue life of the larger wheels.

Keywords: vehicle design; fatigue analysis; rail car wheels; FEA; finite element analysis; kinematic hardening model; thermal loading; modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.1982.061266

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 1982 Vol.3 No.1, pp.90 - 102

Published online: 25 May 2014 *

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