Identifying the Stress of Rail Joint Under Wheel Load By Changing the Bolt Geometry
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Date
2015-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
It is well known that the fatigue failure of bolts can affect the performance of rail joint and the
safety of train running. In this work, the influences of the bolt geometry and bolt material on the
stress of the rail joint are studied by Finite Element method. A three -dimensional finite element
model for rail joint is developed and wheel load is applied to identify the stress of the rail
joint. Different components of the rail joint bolts are being created separately and assemble in
CATIA. The model consists of assembly of the rail, joint bars, bolts, nuts, washers, and wheel. A
three -dimensional finite element analysis of rail joint bars is carried out in ANSYS after
importing from CATIA. The wheel load and velocity are being applied to identify the stress in
the rail joint. The material properties of the rail and wheel are assumed to be same. The material
properties of the wheel and rail are considered to be bilinear kinematic hardening in ANSYS. All
the material properties and boundary conditions are being applied strictly as per the data
available by the Ethiopian railway corporation The results indicate that increasing the radius of
rounded root rail bolt can reduce the stress concentration at the root of rail bolt and rail joint this
will improves the fatigue strength and the working life of the rail bolt and rail joint. And
changing the bolt material has an effect to the stress of the bolt.
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Keywords
Rail Joint, Wheel Load, Stress, Bolt Geometry