Fatigue Behavior of Rail Connections on Semi High Speed and High Speed Rail Networks

Abstract

Rail joint is the most vulnerable and weakest part in the rail structure. Bolted rail joints and welded rail joints are the most predominantly used rail joints. In recent times, continuous welded rail joints are widely used. The literature study exhibits that the performance of welded rail joints are comparatively better than the bolted rail joints. This project mainly deals with the fatigue behavior of welded rail joints subjected to normal speed, semi-high speed and high speed rail networks with respect to rail joint location on the sleeper. The rail joint kept on two conditions, mainly rail joint on top of the sleeper and rail joint in between the sleepers. The model was created and the respective finite element analyses were made in ANSYS Workbench software. The rail joint was analyzed for the movement of wheel load on the rail for all speed conditions mentioned. The butt joint was given at the region of rail joint and the fatigue life results were obtained in the analyses made in ANSYS Workbench. The analyses methods covers the rail and wheel model creation, application of corresponding loads and supports and the simulation results were obtained. The simulation results portrays that when the continuous welded rail joint is located on the sleeper, the fatigue life of the rail joint in both the normal speed and semi-high speed conditions is higher when compared to the fatigue life of rail joint in high speed condition. And also when the welded rail joints are located in between two sleepers the rail joint in high speed rail networks provide increased fatigue life when compared with the rail joints located in normal and semi high speed conditions. This research provides a beneficiary effect and serves as a base for increasing the fatigue life of the rail networks.