A new stress-based model to predict the fatigue life of 880-grade pearlitic rail steel under uniaxial ratcheting conditions

•Ratcheting tests for 880-grade rail steel are carried out under uniaxial asymmetric cyclic stressing.•Efficacy of existing stress-based models in predicting cyclic life for ratcheting cases is analysed.•A novel stress-based model has been developed, and its effectiveness has been examined.•The applicability of the proposed model is also investigated for different materials. This work explores a comparative analysis to verify the applicability of the existing stress-based model to predict life under ratcheting for pearlitic rail steel. The walker model is the most accurate of the available models, but its application is limited owing to the intricacy involved and the experimental reliance on its constant (γ) assessment. As a consequence, a novel stress-based life prediction model is proposed in this study. The applicability of the different models, and the proposed one, is described using equivalent stress amplitude vs life plot, stress deviation plot, error distribution box plots, and probability density function plots.