Finite element and experimental study on multiaxial fatigue analysis of rail clip failures

The rail clip fastening system is an important structural component of railway track systems providing flexibility and turnover resistance for running rails. High replacement frequency of fasteners was observed compared with other components because of fatigue failures of rail clips. In this study,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Liu, Zhufeng, Tsang, Kin Shun, Liu, Yang, Pang, John Hock Lye
Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/154087
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
Description
Summary:The rail clip fastening system is an important structural component of railway track systems providing flexibility and turnover resistance for running rails. High replacement frequency of fasteners was observed compared with other components because of fatigue failures of rail clips. In this study, implicit and explicit finite element (FE) models were developed for E-clip and Fast-clip with material and fatigue properties obtained from experimental testing. The fatigue loading experiments were conducted to determine the strain-life relationship. The assessments of the fatigue damage and fatigue life were analysed using the FE results for the rail clip strain/stress components with the Fatemi-Socie multiaxial fatigue criterion. A time-efficient smallest enclosing circle algorithm was developed to search the critical plane orientation and the maximum shear strain amplitude for fatigue analysis. This work provides a method for FE and experimental study of multiaxial fatigue analysis of rail clip failures subjected to dynamic loading.