Analysis of static fractures of rails due to wheel flats

Report, 2009

The analysis focuses on larger cracks in rails that have deviated to a transverse propagation. In the railhead this corresponds to crack sizes larger than about a centimetre. For rail foot cracks, the restriction is that linear elastic fracture mechanics should be valid in the study of crack growth. This corresponds to crack sizes larger than some millimetres. For the cracks studied it is presumed that rail bending drives crack growth.