Railway wheel tread damage and axle bending stress – Instrumented wheelset measurements and numerical simulations

Preprint, 2020

A combination of instrumented wheelset measurements and numerical simulations of axle bending stresses is used to investigate the consequences of evolving rolling contact fatigue (RCF) damage on a passenger train wheelset. In a field test campaign, stresses have been monitored using a wheelset with four strain gauges mounted on the axle, while the evolution of wheel tread damage (out-of-roundness) has been measured by a displacement probe on regular occasions during workshop maintenance. The strain signals are post-processed in real time and stress variations are computed with a rainflow count algorithm. Based on a convolution integral approach, the measured wheel out-ofroundness has been used as input to numerical simulations of vertical dynamic wheelset–track interaction and axle stresses. Simulated and measured axle stresses are compared for cases involving combinations of tangent track with low or high levels of rail roughness and the measured levels of RCF damage. The study enhances the understanding of how wheel tread damage and track quality influence axle stress amplitudes.