Determination of residual stress in the rail wheel during quenching process by FEM simulation

Abstract

Residual stresses of the rail wheels are influenced by heat treatment during the manufacturing process. The quenching process during the manufacturing results in the residual stresses within the rail wheel that may be dangerous for the rail wheel during its operation. Determination of the residual stress in the rail wheel is important for understanding the damage mechanisms and their influence on the proper work of rail wheels. This paper presents a method for determining the residual stresses in the rail wheel during the quenching process by using the directly coupled thermal-structural analysis in ANSYS software.