Papers by Author: Chan Woo Lee

Abstract: Wheels of the railway vehicle play the important role for driving train through wheel-rail interaction. Especially wheel profile is one of the most important design factors to rule the running stability and safety of train. Accordingly, the control of rolling contact fatigue-related defects is an ongoing concern for both safety and cost reasons. This process is referred to as ratcheting. Wear of wheel and rail surfaces occur due to a mixture of adhesive, abrasive and corrosive processes. In wheel/rail systems with little wear, such failure is manifested by the appearance of closely spaced micro-cracks. In the present paper, a evaluation of surface defects of wheel and rail for Korean high-speed railway. The main research application is the wheel-rail maintenance of Korea high-speed train.

Abstract: The majority of catastrophic wheel failures are caused by surface opening fatigue cracks either in the wheel tread or wheel flange areas. The inclined cracks at railway wheel tread are initiated and the cracks are caused by wheel damage-spalling after 60,000 km running. Because the failured railway wheel is reprofiled before regular wheel reprofiling, the maintenance cost for the railway wheel is increased. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the mechanism for introduction of crack. In the present paper, the combined effect on railway wheels of a periodically varying contact pressure and an intermittent thermal braking loading is investigated. To analyze damage cause for railway wheels, the measurements for replica of wheel surface and effect of braking application in field test are carried out. The result shows that the surface cracks in railway wheel tread are due to combination of thermal loading and ratcheting.

Abstract: In this paper the fretting wear of press-fitted specimens under partial slip conditions was simulated using finite element method and numerical analysis based on Archard's equation. An elasto-plastic analysis of contact stresses in a press-fitted shaft in contact with a boss was conducted with finite element method and the amount of microslip and contact pressure due to bending load was estimated. The predicted wear profile of press-fitted specimens at the contact edge was compared with the experimental results. It is found that the depth of fretting wear by repeated slip between shaft and boss reaches the maximum value at the contact edge. The initial surface profile is continuously changed by the wear at the contact edge, and then the corresponding contact stresses and strain are redistributed.

Abstract: In the present paper, the induced current focusing potential drop (ICFPD) technique is applied to the detection of surface and internal defects for railway wheels. To detect the defects for railway wheels, the sensors for ICFPD are optimized and the tests are carried out with respect to 4 surface defects and 3 internal defects each other. The results show that the surface defect of 0.5 mm and internal crack of 1.0 mm apart from surface of wheel tread could be detected by using this method. The ICFPD method is useful to detect the defect that initiated in the tread of railway wheels.

Abstract: In the shrink or press-fitted shafts such as railway axles, fretting can occur by cyclic stress and micro-slippage due to local movement between shaft and boss. When the fretting occurs in the press-fitted shaft, the fatigue strength remarkably decreases compared with that of without fretting. In this paper fretting fatigue life of press-fitted specimens was evaluated using multiaxial fatigue criteria based on critical plane approaches. An elastic-plastic analysis of contact stresses in a press-fitted shaft in contact with a boss was conducted by finite element method and micro-slip due to the bending load was analyzed. The number of cycles of fretting fatigue and the crack orientation were compared with the experimental results obtained by rotating bending tests. It is found that the crack initiation of fretting fatigue between shaft and boss occurs at the contact edge and the normal stress on the critical plane of contact interface was an important parameter for fretting fatigue crack initiation. Furthermore, the results indicated that a critical plane parameter could predict the orientation of crack initiation in the press-fitted shaft.