Effect of wear on rolling contact fatigue crack growth in rails

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of the load direction and the phenomenon of wear on rolling contact fatigue crack growth. For this purpose, a UIC60 rail with accurate geometry using FEM is studied. In this regard, a three-dimensional finite element model is provided. The maximum stress caused by wheel/rail contact for a new/worn wheel profiles was obtained using such model. Then, using Franc 3D software, during stress analysis for different situations of wheel, different values of stress intensity factors are obtained. The behavior of crack under fatigue loading was studied using a three-dimensional modeling. •The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of wear on RCF crack growth.•The maximum stress caused by wheel/rail contact was obtained.•The stress history is used to calculate SIFs and fatigue life of rail.•Failure of rail the influence of wear was analyzed to identify the cause.•Results showed that the effect of wear on the fatigue life is remarkable.