Stress-based fatigue reliability analysis ofthe rail fastening spring clipunder traffic loads

• Main Authors: Saeed Mohammadzadeh, Sodayf Ahadi, Mehrdad Nouri
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Marcílio Alves
• Series: Latin American Journal of Solids and Structures
• Subjects: Fastening spring clip; Fatigue crack prediction; Reliability; FORM
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1679-78252014000600006&lng=en&tlng=en

Nowadays, the rail fastening systems play an important role for preserving the connection between the rails and sleepers in various conditions. In this paper, stress based concept is used to develop a comprehensive approach for fatigue reliability analysisof fastening spring clip. Axle load, speed and material properties are assumed to be random variables. First, track and train models are analyzed dynamically in order to achieve displacement time history of fas-tening spring clip. Then this displacement time history is applied to the fastening spring clip in FE software to obtain variable ampli-tude of stresses. Crack nucleation life is calculated by rain-flow method and Palmgren-Miner linear damage rule. First Order Relia-bility Method (FORM) and Monte-Carlosimulation technique are employed for the reliability index estimations. The influences of various random variables on the probability of failure are investi-gated by sensitivity analysis. The results show that the equivalent stress range and material parameter have significant effect on fa-tigue crack nucleation.