CRACK INITIATION CRITERIA FOR DEFORMED ANISOTROPIC R260 RAIL STEEL

Paper in proceeding, 2022

Rail material selection and maintenance planning require accurate material failure criteria. While many of these criteria consider low-cycle fatigue of virgin materials, rail failure is known to occur after severe plastic deformations. It is, therefore, relevant to consider the applicability of such criteria during large plastic deformations. In this study, we simulate previously performed high-shear tension-torsion experiments using finite strain theory to evaluate the local stresses and strains. Based on these results, failure criteria are calibrated and validated. The Jiang-Sehitoglu criterion accurately fits and predicts failure. However, the identified parameter values are different from literature values for similar materials.