XFEM rolling contact fatigue crack propagation in railways considering creepages on contact shear stresses

• Published in: Engineering fracture mechanics 2022-12, Vol.276, p.108896, Article 108896
• Main Authors: Rodríguez-Arana, B., Bergara, A., Gil-Negrete, N., Nieto, J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Creepages; Railway; Rolling contact fatigue; Wheel/rail contact shear stresses; XFEM
• ISSN: 0013-7944; 1873-7315
• DOI: 10.1016/j.engfracmech.2022.108896

•FASTSIM algorithm implementation in Abaqus to consider slipping and adhesion zones of the wheel/rail contact patch.•XFEM rolling contact fatigue (RCF) analysis of a 60E1 rail profile considering creepages.•Validation of the developed rail model with data available in the literature.•Sensitivity analysis to determine the influence of contact conditions on the fatigue life of rails. In this work the influence of considering wheel-rail contact creepages on fatigue crack growth rates due to Rolling Contact Fatigue(RCF) is studied. For this purpose, the FASTSIM algorithm, which considers the moving complex pressure distribution with slipping and adhesion zones of the wheel-rail contact patch, has been implemented in Abaqus using FORTRAN code subroutines. The developed methodology has been validated with a 60E1 rail profile model which uses XFEM, by comparing the obtained Stress Intensity Factors(SIFs) and sub-surface shear stresses with numerical results available in the literature. Finally, the RCF crack propagation analysis of a 60E1 rail profile with different contact conditions has been performed using the XFEM. The obtained results justify the necessity of considering contact creepages on contact shear stresses for crack growth analysis.