This paper presents the prediction of fatigue life and crack propagation in the railway wheel due to the stress field caused by mechanical loads and press fitting process of a railway wheel. A 3-D nonlinear stress analysis model has been applied to estimate stress fields of the railway wheel in press fitting process. Finite element analysis model is presented applying the elastic–plastic finite element analysis for the rail wheel under contact mechanical loads. Calculative analysis applying a finite element method (FEM) has been used to predict residual stresses. Then the stress history is used to calculate stress intensity factor (SIF) and fatigue life of railway wheel under service conditions. The effect of several parameters, vertical loads, initial crack length and friction coefficient between rim and hub/wheel, on the fatigue life in railway wheels is investigated using the suggested 3-D finite element model.

Keywords: Crack propagation, Life estimation, Residual stress, Finite element method, Stress intensity

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