ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: The influence of wheel and rail profile shape features on the initiation of rolling contact fatigue cracks are evaluated based on the results of multi-body vehicle dynamics simulations. The damage index and surface fatigue index are used as two damage parameters to assess the influence of the different features. The damage parameters showed good agreement to one another and to in-field observations. Some of the wheel and rail profile shape features showed a correlation to the predicted rolling contact fatigue damage. Rolling contact fatigue initiation and crack growth can thus be reduced by eliminating unwanted shape features.
