Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 82 (2016) 25–32

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tafmec

Residual fatigue lifetime estimation of railway axles for various loading

spectra
Pavel Pokorný a,b,⇑, Pavel Hutař a, Luboš Náhlík a
a
Dep. CEITEC IPM, Institute of Physics of Materials, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v. v. i., Žižkova 22, 616 62 Brno, Czech Republic
b
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology, Technická 2896/2, 616 69 Brno, Czech Republic

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The knowledge of the residual fatigue lifetime of railway axles is very important for the safe operation of
Available online 29 July 2015 trains. The railway axles could include some defects like cracks, scratches or inhomogeneities which
could contribute to the fatigue crack initiation and in the final stage to axle failure. The
Keywords: non-destructive testing methods are not reliable for detection of relatively short (circa 1–2 mm), but even
Fatigue failure dangerous cracks. For conservative estimation of residual fatigue lifetime the railway axle containing
Residual fatigue lifetime initial crack should be considered. The residual fatigue lifetime is given by the number of load cycles
Crack propagation
for fatigue crack growth from the initial size of the crack up to the critical size with consequent fatigue
Railway axle
Load spectrum
failure of railway axle. Railway axles are used in different types of trains which are used under different
conditions (regional trains, urban trains, high speed trains, freight trains, etc.). This work is focused on
numerical estimation of residual fatigue lifetime of railway axle while several different load spectra taken
from the literature are considered in the performed estimations. This paper also shows the influence of
the discretization level of the continuous load spectrum and effect of magnification or diminution of load
spectrum on the calculated residual fatigue lifetime of the railway axle.
Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The failure of a railway axle could lead to the derailment of a
train with possible disastrous consequences. The latest three
reports of the European Railway Agency (ERA) [1–3] show almost
400 cases of train accidents within the period from 2007 to 2012
in the European Union, which were caused by railway axle failure.
In many cases the failure of the railway axle was caused by fatigue
of used material [4]. Even though railway axles are designed
against fatigue failure, the existing defects in railway axles could
lead to initiation of fatigue cracks due to cyclic loading. The detec-
tion of these small fatigue cracks by current non-destructive test-
ing methods is not ensured in all cases. Fig. 1 shows the
probability of detection of a fatigue crack as a function of fatigue
crack length a [5]. The figure shows that the longer crack is, the
higher probability of its detection exists. Because of the possibility
that the small initial crack might not be detected by
non-destructive testing method the railway axle containing crack
is considered. Residual fatigue lifetimes of railway axles should
be used as a basis for determination of inspection intervals to
⇑ Corresponding author at: Institute of Physics of Materials, Academy of Sciences
of the Czech Republic, v. v. i., Žižkova 22, 616 62 Brno, Czech Republic. Tel.: +420
532 290 347.
E-mail address: pokorny@ipm.cz (P. Pokorný).
ensure the safe operation of the axle. For conservative establish-
ment of the residual fatigue lifetime the considered initial crack
position is located at the place where the possible crack can cause
the earliest fatigue failure of the railway axle. In this paper the
position of the initial crack was determined on the base of finite
element calculations at notch near press-fitted wheel (this position
is in accordance with Ref. [4]), see Fig. 2, where the crack initiation
is the most probable from following reasons:
– the bending moment reaches its maximum there,
– there is a stress concentration due to notch effect,
– there is an additional load due to press-fitted wheel.
A further important factor influencing reliable estimation of
residual fatigue lifetime is the shape of the fatigue crack front. A
semi-elliptical fatigue crack front description is commonly used
in the literature, see e.g. Refs. [6–9]. The reason is that the semi-
elliptical shape of the crack front fits well real fatigue crack front
evolution. A special procedure for crack front shape determination
during crack propagation was used in this work to ensure that the
simulated crack front is in good accordance with the real one. The
center of ellipse is considered at the surface of the railway axle, see
Fig. 2. Based on experiences and according to Ref. [10] the fatigue
crack grows perpendicularly to the maximum principal stress. The

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tafmec.2015.06.007
0167-8442/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
26 P. Pokorný et al. / Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 82 (2016) 25–32
Fig. 1. Probability of detection of the crack [5].
maximum principal stress is almost the same as longitudinal stress
in the case of railway axle loading. Therefore, it can be assumed
that the fatigue crack grows perpendicularly to the railway axle
axis.
2. Numerical model of the axle
Corresponding numerical model of the railway axle containing
a crack is shown in Fig. 3. Because of model symmetry, only one
half of the driving wheelset was modelled using commercial soft-
ware ANSYS v.13. The element SOLID95 was used for the mesh
generation (typical model contained about 250 000 finite ele-
ments). Great attention was devoted to the size of elements and
their distribution. Very fine mesh was used in the vicinity of the
crack front to well describe the stress singularity near the crack
front. The geometry of the railway axle is commercially manufac-
tured in BONATRANS GROUP for high-speed trains, see Fig. 2.
Two very commonly used steels (EA1N and EA4T) for manufactur-
ing of railway axles are considered in this study. The elastic mate-
rial properties of the steel EA1N and EA4T used in simulations are:
Young’s modulus E = 206 GPa and Poisson’s ratio m = 0.3. These val-
ues are in good agreement with values published in [11]. The
essential model considers ride on straight track, where dominant
load is caused by the train weight. It should be noticed here that
the overloads caused by turnings, switches, crossovers, etc. are
taken into account by considering of load spectra in following
calculations.
The finite element mesh was strongly inhomogeneously dis-
tributed in the axle body in order to describe singular stress field
near the crack front properly (element size close to the crack front
was 10–50 lm in dependence on the crack length). For description
of the crack behavior in the railway axle the stress intensity factor
approach was used [4,8]. By considering pure mode I of loading the
Fig. 2. Railway axle with press-fitted wheels (railway wheelset).
Fig. 3. The numerical model of railway axle with detail of considered semi-elliptical
crack.
stress intensity factor KI(a) caused predominantly by bending
moment could be expressed in the form:
pffiffiffiffiffiffi
K I ðaÞ ¼ r paY I ðaÞ; ð1Þ
where r is a remote loading stress, YI(a) is geometric function and a
is the actual crack length. Stress intensity factor was estimated in
the several points along the crack front using direct method [12].
The fatigue crack front was assumed as semi-elliptical with chang-
ing ratio between semi-axis a and b (see Fig. 2) during fatigue crack
growth. According to Refs. [13,14] this ratio was determined as
state where the stress intensity factor is constant all over the fati-
gue crack front for given crack length a. This computation strategy
has behind minimization of the energy during crack propagation
[15]. This crack front shape optimization was performed in each
crack length increment. Tens of crack increments were considered
in the simulation of crack growth from the initial crack length a0
to the final one ac. Crack increments were chosen unevenly, tenths
of millimeter for the smallest cracks and several millimeters for the
longer crack.
By modelling of railway axle with different crack lengths it is
possible to obtain values of geometric function YI(a) describing
the change of the stress intensity factor with the crack length.
Function YI(a) can be expressed e.g. in the form of polynomial func-
tion. In the presented case the calculated data obtained for differ-
ent crack lengths were fitted by following function:
Y I ðaÞ ¼ c0 þ c1 a þ c2 a2 þ c3 a3 þ c4 a4 þ    ; ð2Þ
where ci are constants of polynomial function YI(a). Because of dom-
inant bending loading, the geometric function is determined just for
mode I of loading and next two load modes (II and III) are neglected
in presented procedure. This assumption is in the accordance with
conclusions in Ref. [16].
The fatigue crack propagation is also influenced by existence of
press-fitted wheel, which causes high tensile longitudinal stress at
the place of considered crack [8,17,18]. An additional stress inten-
sity factor caused by the press-fitted wheel is given by overlapping
size of the fit (in our case approx. 0.3 mm). Non-linear contact
analyses were carried out with contact friction coefficient l = 0.6.
Such value of the coefficient of friction is typically used for numer-
ical analysis of the press-fit on the railway axles, see e.g. [18].
Based on proposed model considering only press-fit, the stress
intensity factor caused by press-fit was determined by FEM for sev-
eral crack lengths a. Again, by fitting of obtained values it is possi-
ble to express the stress intensity factor in this polynomial form:
K I;PF ðaÞ ¼ k0 þ k1 a þ k2 a2 þ k3 a3 þ k4 a4 þ    ; ð3Þ
where KI,PF(a) is the stress intensity factor caused by press-fitted
wheel, ki are constants of the polynomial function.
 P. Pokorný et al. / Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 82 (2016) 25–32
The total stress intensity factor KI,total(a) acting at considered
fatigue crack front is given by following relationship:
K I;total ðaÞ ¼ K I ðaÞ þ K I;PF ðaÞ:
It should be emphasized that the effect of the press-fit is more
noticeable at the free surface and decreases with the crack length
increase. For the present configuration the effect of press-fit is sig-
nificant especially for smaller cracks. This fact is documented in
Fig. 4, where the total stress intensity factor is decomposed into
two major kinds of loading – pure bending (load corresponding
to the train weight) and pure press-fit loading. The stress intensity
factor caused by bending load monotonically increases with the
crack length. The stress intensity factor caused by the press-fit
has increasing trend up to crack length a  5 mm with following
gradual decline for longer crack lengths. It follows, that the stress
intensity factor caused by the press-fit does not significantly con-
tribute to the fatigue damage in the case of longer cracks.
It should be noticed that the stress intensity factor caused by
pure bending KI(a) is numerically calculated for basic level of the
load. The overload effects are taken into account in the following
analytical calculations of residual fatigue lifetime by the real load
(overload) amplitudes from the load spectrum. Eq. (4a) is for the
following estimation of the residual fatigue life modified and the
basic (without dynamic effects) value KI(a) is multiplied by the rel-
evant amplitude value b from the normalized load spectrum:
K I;total ðaÞ ¼ bK I ðaÞ þ K I;PF ðaÞ:
3. Fatigue crack growth description
Number of descriptions of fatigue crack propagation rate can be
found in the literature [19]. However, only few of them are usually
used. Most common are Paris–Erdogan [10] description, NASGRO
[20], Walker [21], Forman [21] or Klesnil–Lukáš [22] description.
The Paris–Erdogan relationship is considered in this work. This
relationship provides conservative estimation of the crack propa-
gation rate, see Ref. [23]. Mentioned relationship was used in the
form:
v ¼ da=dN  Da=DN ¼ CðK I;total Þm ;
where v is fatigue crack growth rate, Da is crack increment, DN is
increment of loading cycles, KI,total is maximal value of the stress
intensity factor during one load cycle, C and m are material
constants.
The discretized form of the relationship (5) was used for com-
putation of fatigue crack increment Da:
Da ¼ CðK I;total Þm DN ðfor K I;th < K I;total < K IC Þ;
Fig. 4. Dependence of calculated stress intensity factor on the crack length for three
cases: pure bending, press-fit only and mutual effect of bending and press-fit
loading.
27
ð4aÞ
Fig. 5. (a) Scheme of v–K curves of considered materials described by Paris–
Erdogan relationship and (b) geometry of M(T) experimental specimen used for v–K
curve determination.
Da ¼ 0 ðfor K I;total < K I;th Þ; ð7Þ
where KI,th is threshold value of the stress intensity factor and KIC is
critical value of the stress intensity factor. The estimation of resid-
ual fatigue lifetime could be determined by application of relation-
ships (6) and (7). The residual fatigue lifetime is given by number of
load cycles or load blocks necessary for fatigue crack growth from
an initial crack length a0 up to the critical one ac. In other words
ð4bÞ the computation runs in a loop until the value of fatigue crack
length a does not overcome its critical length ac:
ai ¼ ai1 þ Da ðfor ai < ac Þ; ð8Þ
where ai is the crack length in ith loop and ai1 is the crack length in
previous loop (in the first loop ai1 equals to the initial crack length
a0). The critical length ac was considered as 55 mm in performed
calculations. This length is shorter than the critical one ac deter-
mined for the critical value of the stress intensity factor KIC (consid-
ered 60 MPa m1/2). It follows, that determined residual fatigue
lifetimes are conservative (due to considering shorter critical crack
length). On the other hand, the dominant part of residual fatigue
lifetime is consumed in early stages of fatigue crack propagation
ð5Þ so determined residual lifetime is almost the same as lifetime deter-
mined for real critical crack length. In other words, the rapid growth
rate in final stages of fatigue crack propagation has insignificant
contribution to whole residual fatigue lifetime, see also Refs. [7,8].
This paper considers two commonly used steels for manufac-
turing of railway axles (EA1N and EA4T) [4,17,24]. Dependence of
the stress intensity factor amplitude KI on the fatigue crack propa-
gation rate v (v–K curve) was determined experimentally.
ð6Þ According to Refs. [11,25,26] the geometry of used experimental
specimen affects the v–K curve data due to different constraint
level especially in the threshold area. Therefore, middle tension
(M(T)) specimens (with low constraint level) were chosen for con-
servative determination of fatigue crack propagation rate.
Geometry of the experimental specimens used are schematically
shown in Fig. 5b (thickness of the specimen was 5 mm and speci-
men width was 60 mm). Crack propagation was measured based
on ASTM E647 standard. The scheme of v–KI curves of considered
steels is shown in Fig. 5a (on the request of BONATRANS company
we do not provide measured data). The Paris–Erdogan representa-
tions were obtained by using of least square method. The threshold
values were determined as the lowest measured value of the stress
intensity factor for fatigue crack propagation rates under 109 m
per cycle for both steels. The v-K curves were obtained for stress
ratio R = 1. This ratio corresponds approximately to typical load-
ing of railway axle due to rotary bending during train movement
[4,27]. However, the existence of the press-fitted wheel near the
considered fatigue crack influences the stress field around the
28 P. Pokorný et al. / Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 82 (2016) 25–32

crack front and increases the value of mean stress [4,18]. Then the
acting stress ratio R is higher than 1.
Fig. 6a shows load cycle with stress ratio R = 1 (symmetric
tension/compression). Real acting stress ratio in investigated part
of the axle is influenced by stresses caused by press-fitted wheel
as well. Thus, the stress ratio is higher than 1, see Fig. 6b. The
stress intensity factor caused by the press-fit KI,PF is changing for
different crack lengths, see Fig. 4. The same effect is caused by vari-
able amplitude loading, where the stress ratio depends on actual
load amplitude, which is superimposing to press-fit load. This
implies that the stress ratio is changing within some interval dur-
ing the fatigue crack propagation in each load cycle. Therefore, the
existence of mean stress was taken into account by increase of load
Fig. 7. The comparison of different railway axle load spectra [27].
amplitude by KI,PF value in each cycle, see Fig. 6c.

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Determination of residual fatigue lifetime for different load spectra

During train operation the railway axles are subjected to cyclic

loading with variable amplitude. The variability is caused by vari-
ous operation regimes of trains. The variable amplitude loading
could be caused by weight level of train (e.g. fully loaded train,
unloaded train, etc.), velocity of the train or by type of track (e.g.
train goes on straight rail, on curved track, over switches, cross-
overs, etc.). Fig. 7 shows typical cumulative representation of sev-
eral kinds of railway axle load spectra found in Ref. [27]. These
spectra correspond to longitudinal stresses on railway axle surface.
The vertical axis of the graph represents multiple of static load. The
static load means the loading of the axle by the weight of the train
only during its straight ride. Number 1 on the vertical axis corre-
sponds to this kind of loading. Number greater than 1 represents
additional dynamic effect occurring during the ride. According to
Fig. 7 the dynamic effects can be strong (up to 3 times higher than
the normal load), but very rare (units or few tens of cycles during
106 cycles). However, these load peaks cause fatigue crack initia-
tion and following crack propagation from surface material defects
or scratches. Therefore, the load peaks are crucial for fatigue dam-
age development of the axle. The horizontal axis of the graph rep-
resents normalized number of load cycles, where ‘‘normalized’’
spectra mean that every spectrum was normalized to the same
number of load cycles (to be comparable with others).
Fig. 8 compares five different load spectra taken from Refs.
[11,28–30]. The first spectrum, see Ref. [11], corresponds to high
speed train with tilting technology. The next two spectra corre-
spond to urban train (weight 13 tons corresponds to fully unloaded
train and 16 tons to 60% of maximal load of the urban train), see
Ref. [28] for detail explanation. The forth spectrum should repre-
sent regional train, see Ref. [29], and the last spectrum corresponds
Fig. 8. Load spectra of railway axles considered in estimations of residual fatigue
lifetime.
to freight train loading, see Ref. [30]. For numerical calculation of
residual fatigue lifetime, each of the spectra was discretized into
36 load levels. The load level with highest occurrence of load cycles
of each spectrum was normalized to one (it was assumed that this
level corresponds to ‘‘static’’ load, which is caused only by weight
of the train during ride on straight track without any additional
dynamic effect). The static load of train causes longitudinal stress
circa 55 MPa on the axle surface at the place, where the initiation
of the fatigue crack is considered. Therefore, for comparability each
of the normalized spectra was multiplied by 55 to obtain load
stress mode 55 MPa for all considered load spectra. Nevertheless,
other 35 load levels generally differ from each other. For example,
the modified high speed train spectrum (original source in Ref.
[11]) reaches maximal longitudinal stress amplitude circa
170 MPa and modified freight train spectrum (original source in
Ref. [30]) reaches only circa 120 MPa in the study presented.

Fig. 6. (a) Load cycle with stress ratio R = 1, (b) load cycle with stress ratio R > 1, and (c) conservative load cycle considered in numerical estimations (respecting press-fit
with admitting experimental data established for the stress ratio R = 1).
 P. Pokorný et al. / Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 82 (2016) 25–32 29

Table 1
Estimated residual fatigue lifetimes (in number of load blocks) for EA1N steel and
different load spectra.
The source of original load Crack growth
spectrum
1 ? 55 3 ? 55
(mm) (mm)
High speed train [26] 347 LBs 55 LBs
Urban train 16 t [29] 10 304 LBs 55 LBs
Urban train 13 t [29] 8916 LBs 66 LBs
Regional train [30] 6044 LBs 80 LBs
Freight train [31] 1 LBs 58 LBs
As was mentioned before the residual fatigue lifetime is consid-
ered as number of load blocks (one load block corresponds to
350 000 cycles) necessary for crack growth from the initial size
to the critical one. Following initial crack lengths were considered
in lifetime estimations: 1 mm, 3 mm and 5 mm. The critical length
of the crack was considered as 55 mm. The relationships (6)–(8)
were used for calculation of residual fatigue lifetimes of railway
axle. The calculation of fatigue crack increment runs in the loop
until the actual crack length does not overcome the critical value.
Results of calculated residual fatigue lifetimes are shown in
Tables 1 and 2 for EA1N steel and EA4T steel respectively. The
obtained results could be summarized into next points:
(a) EA1N steel exhibits higher residual fatigue lifetime than
EA4T steel. This is predominantly caused by considering of
higher threshold value for EA1N steel than for EA4T steel.
This conclusion is in accordance with Ref. [31].
(b) In the case of EA1N steel the residual fatigue lifetimes deter-
mined for initial crack lengths 1 mm and 3 mm are signifi-
cantly different (for instance the residual fatigue lifetime
determined for regional train [30] is around 6044 load
blocks in the case of initial crack length 1 mm, but for initial
crack length 3 mm it is only 80 load blocks). This is also pre-
dominantly caused by threshold value of the stress intensity
factor. The threshold value determines which load ampli-
tudes are damaging (contributing to the crack elongation)
and which are not damaging. In the case of very short initial
crack (around 1 mm) only several highest load amplitudes
from the load spectrum are damaging (corresponding value
of K max
I;total > K I;th ). This fact leads to enormously higher resid-
ual fatigue lifetime than in the case of longer initial crack
size, e.g. 3 mm.
(c) The difference of determined residual fatigue lifetimes for all
considered load spectra is higher for shorter cracks. The
shorter initial crack, the higher sensitivity to the threshold
value appears. In the case of initial crack lengths 3 mm and
5 mm, the difference of determined residual fatigue lifetimes
for all considered load spectra is quite small.
(d) The results obtained show one interesting phenomenon. The
most harmful load spectrum depends on initial crack
lengths. For instance, in the case of EA1N steel, the high
freight train spectrum is the least harmful spectrum from
all considered load spectra for initial crack length 1 mm,
however for initial crack lengths 3 mm and 5 mm the regio-
nal and urban (13 t) train spectra are more harmful, see
results in Table 1. Fig. 9 could explain this phenomenon.
The figure shows sketch of two load block models. The
5 ? 55
(mm) threshold stress is a function of threshold value of the stress
39 LBs intensity factor KI,th and crack length a. By increasing of ini-
40 LBs tial fatigue crack length the threshold stress decreases. The
48 LBs cycles which do not overcome the threshold stress do not
54 LBs
contribute to the crack elongation (not damaging cycles).
42 LBs
For short crack (around 1 mm, see Fig. 9) there is one dam-
aging cycle (DC) for load block 1 and two damaging cycles
for load block 2. Nevertheless, for the initial crack length
3 mm there are 7 damaging cycles in load block 1 and only
3 damaging cycles in the load block 2. It implies that the load
block 2 could be more harmful for shorter crack lengths and
the load block 1 for longer crack lengths. The load block
model 1 in Fig. 9 is similar to freight train spectrum [30].
This spectrum exhibits the highest residual fatigue lifetime
for initial crack length 1 mm. Nevertheless, in the case of ini-
tial crack length 5 mm the spectrum exhibits one of the low-
est residual fatigue lifetimes, see Table 2. This could be
explained by Fig. 10 which shows load spectra with marked
areas A and B. The freight train spectrum [30] is the spec-
trum with the lowest longitudinal stress amplitudes in the
area A, but in the area B the spectrum is one of the most
dominant. Obtained results show that the area A is more sig-
nificant for railway axles with shorter initial cracks (crack
length circa 1 mm) and area B is more significant for longer
initial cracks (crack length longer than circa 5 mm). It could
be said that higher threshold values of used material and
shorter cracks make dominant area A and lower threshold
values and longer cracks make more dominant area B.
Typical residual fatigue lifetime is concentrated in early stages
of fatigue crack propagation, see Table 1 (the crack growth from
1 mm to 3 mm takes e.g. 99% of the whole residual fatigue life-
time), the harmful effect of load spectrum depends predominantly
on the initial crack length.
4.2. Influence of load spectrum discretization on estimated residual
fatigue lifetime
The discretization of load spectrum is needed for numerical
estimation of residual fatigue lifetime. The original continuous
and discretized load spectrum is shown in Fig. 11. The discretiza-
tion was carried out into 36, 18, 12, 9 and 6 load stress amplitude
levels for mutual comparison of discretization effect. The higher
level of discretization better fits the considered load spectrum
and obtained results of residual fatigue lifetime should be more
accurate. However, the lower level of discretization could leads
to easier calculation of residual fatigue lifetime. This paper com-
pares influence of discretization level on the resultant residual fati-
gue lifetime estimation for three chosen spectra.

Table 2
Estimated residual fatigue lifetimes (in number of load blocks) for EA4T steel and different load spectra.

The source of original load spectrum Crack growth

1 ? 55 (mm) 3 ? 55 (mm) 5 ? 55 (mm)
High speed train [26] 39 LBs 18 LBs 15 LBs
Urban train 16 t [29] 101 LBs 44 LBs 38 LBs
Urban train 13 t [29] 113 LBs 49 LBs 36 LBs
Regional train [30] 159 LBs 51 LBs 43 LBs
Freight train [31] 1037 LBs 18 LBs 16 LBs
30 P. Pokorný et al. / Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 82 (2016) 25–32
Fig. 9. Comparison of load spectra with regard to number of damaging cycles (DC) within the spectrum and initial crack length (1 or 3 mm). Dashed lines represent level of
threshold stress for particular initial crack length.
Fig. 10. Load spectra with highlighted area A important for short cracks (circa 1 mm) propagation and area B important for long cracks propagation (longer than circa 5 mm).
Fig. 11. The example of continuous spectrum and discretized spectrum into 36 load
levels.
Table 3 shows residual fatigue lifetimes of considered railway
axle made of EA1N steel for different load spectra discretization
levels and initial crack lengths. The results for the same conditions,
but for railway axle made of EA4T steel are shown in Table 4.
The obtained results show that level of discretization is not sig-
nificant for determination of residual fatigue lifetime. However,
some conclusions could be established:
(a) The higher level of discretization leads to more accurate
results.
(b) For quite ‘‘flat’’ load spectra, as freight train spectrum in
Fig. 8, the influence of discretization level on determination
of residual fatigue lifetime is less pronounced (especially for
longer initial crack lengths, see Table 4).
(c) The higher discretization level of load spectrum is quite
important for shorter initial cracks (around 1 mm). This is
caused by the fact that behavior of short crack is very sensi-
tive to the threshold value of used material. An extensive
averaging caused by gross discretization can lead to the sup-
pression of some load amplitudes from the load spectrum.
Then the calculated residual lifetime can be overestimated.
4.3. Influence of magnification and diminution of load spectrum on
determined residual fatigue lifetime
The last aim of the study was to determine an effect of magni-
fication and diminution of load spectrum on estimated residual
fatigue lifetime. The effect of magnification and diminution of load
spectrum could be influenced e.g. by design of railway axle, where
little enlargement of railway axle diameter (or notch radius) could
lead to a reduction of axle bending stress in the investigated place
with consequent higher residual fatigue lifetime estimation. The
magnification and diminution of the load spectrum means that
all load amplitudes in the load spectrum were increased or reduced
by certain percentage (note that the press-fit was still the same).
This knowledge can be useful in the case when the measured load-
ing spectrum does not belong to the designed axle (very common
case). For establishment of magnification and diminution effect on
residual fatigue lifetime, the regional train load spectrum dis-
cretized into 36 levels of load stress amplitudes was considered
(this load spectrum is roughly ‘‘average’’ from point of view of load
spectra in Fig. 8).
Figs. 12 and 13 show the effect of magnification or diminution
of load spectrum on the residual fatigue lifetime of railway axle
 P. Pokorný et al. / Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 82 (2016) 25–32 31

Table 3
Estimated residual fatigue lifetimes (in number of load blocks) for EA1N steel and 5 types of load spectrum discretization.

Load spectrum Level of load spectrum discretization Crack growth

1 ? 55 (mm) 3 ? 55 (mm) 5 ? 55 (mm)
Regional train [30] 36 levels 6044 LBs 80 LBs 54 LBs
18 levels 6647 LBs 80 LBs 54 LBs
12 levels 6564 LBs 79 LBs 54 LBs
9 levels 7285 LBs 78 LBs 54 LBs
6 levels 5871 LBs 79 LBs 53 LBs
High speed train [26] 36 levels 347 LBs 55 LBs 39 LBs
18 levels 342 LBs 55 LBs 39 LBs
12 levels 351 LBs 55 LBs 39 LBs
9 levels 353 LBs 56 LBs 39 LBs
6 levels 427 LBs 56 LBs 41 LBs
Freight train [31] 36 levels 1 LBs 58 LBs 42 LBs
18 levels 1 LBs 58 LBs 42 LBs
12 levels 1 LBs 58 LBs 42 LBs
9 levels 1 LBs 58 LBs 42 LBs
6 levels 1 LBs 58 LBs 41 LBs

Table 4
Estimated residual fatigue lifetimes (in number of load blocks) for EA4T steel and 5 types of load spectrum discretization.

Load spectrum Level of load spectrum discretization Crack growth

1 ? 55 (mm) 3 ? 55 (mm) 5 ? 55 (mm)
Regional train [30] 36 levels 159 LBs 51 LBs 43 LBs
18 levels 163 LBs 51 LBs 43 LBs
12 levels 169 LBs 52 LBs 43 LBs
9 levels 177 LBs 52 LBs 43 LBs
6 levels 195 LBs 51 LBs 44 LBs
High speed train [26] 36 levels 39 LBs 18 LBs 15 LBs
18 levels 39 LBs 17 LBs 15 LBs
12 levels 40 LBs 18 LBs 15 LBs
9 levels 40 LBs 18 LBs 16 LBs
6 levels 40 LBs 19 LBs 16 LBs
Freight train [31] 36 levels 1037 LBs 18 LBs 16 LBs
18 levels 1248 LBs 18 LBs 16 LBs
12 levels 1 LBs 18 LBs 16 LBs
9 levels 1 LBs 18 LBs 16 LBs
6 levels 1 LBs 18 LBs 16 LBs

Fig. 12. The influence of magnification of original spectrum on residual fatigue Fig. 13. The influence of magnification of original spectrum on residual fatigue
lifetime of railway axle with initial crack length 3 mm. lifetime of railway axle with initial crack length 5 mm.

for initial crack length 3 mm and 5 mm respectively. The conclu-

sions of results obtained could be summarized as follow:
(a) A small diminution of load spectrum leads to the rapid
increase of estimated residual fatigue lifetime. For instance,
in the case of EA1N steel the 10% reduction of load spectrum
leads to circa twice higher residual fatigue lifetime
estimation.
(b) For greater values of magnification of load spectrum, the
railway axle made of EA4T steel exhibits higher residual fati-
gue lifetime than in the case of EA1N steel. This is more pro-
nounced for longer initial crack lengths. This effect is caused
by lower fatigue crack propagation rate in EA4T steel for
higher values of the stress intensity factor (see the intersec-
tion of v–K curves of EA1N and EA4T steels in Fig. 5a).
32 P. Pokorný et al. / Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 82 (2016) 25–32
5. Conclusions
Presented work is focused on the influence of load spectra on
residual fatigue lifetime of railway axles. The paper shows three
selected phenomena influencing residual fatigue lifetime estima-
tion: influence of load spectrum type, influence of load spectrum
discretization and influence of magnification or diminution of the
load spectrum.
The influence of load spectrum type was studied by consider-
ing of 5 different load spectra available in the literature. Each of
the spectra was normalized to the same number of load cycles
and to the same load stress mode (55 MPa) to make possible their
mutual comparability. The difference of spectra in maximal load
stress amplitudes plays an important role in axle damage,
because only the highest load stress amplitudes in the spectrum
exceed the threshold stress value especially in the case of initial
small cracks.
It can be concluded that the larger initial crack length is, the less
influence of the threshold value is on the value of estimated
residual fatigue lifetime. The difference of obtained residual fatigue
lifetimes is less significant for initial crack lengths 3 mm or 5 mm
than for initial cracks lengths 1–2 mm. Harmfulness of each spec-
trum depends on initial crack length and threshold value of consid-
ered material.
The influence of spectrum discretization was shown on three
chosen spectra. Calculations were carried out on discretized spec-
tra into 36, 18, 12, 9 and 6 load stress levels. The obtained results
showed that significance of discretization is less pronounced in
comparison to other effects influencing the fatigue crack
propagation.
The influence of magnification and diminution of load spectrum
was studied as well. For instance, in the case of railway axle made
of EA1N steel, the diminution of load spectrum by 10% leads to
circa twice higher residual fatigue lifetime of the axle than in the
case of the original load spectrum. It means that small change of
the axle design or axle material can significantly increase intervals
between inspections of the wheelsets.
The paper shows some aspects connected with fatigue crack
propagation and fatigue damage accumulation in railway axles. It
can be generally concluded that studied engineering application
is very sensitive to the threshold value of used material and the
material characteristics play crucial role for the save operation of
the axle. The results obtained contribute to the better understand-
ing of fatigue crack propagation in railway axles and can be used as
a basis for determination of regular inspection intervals of railway
wheelsets.
Acknowledgements
The work was supported through the Grant No.
CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0214 of the Ministry of Education, Youth and
Sport of the Czech Republic and specific academic research Grant
No. FSI-S-14-2311 provided to Brno University of Technology,
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and by CEITEC – Central
European Institute of Technology with research infrastructure sup-
ported by the project CZ.1.05/1.1.00/02.0068 financed from
European Regional Development Fund.
References
[1] European Railway Agency (ERA), Railway Safety Performance in the European
Union, 2014, <http://www.era.europa.eu/Document-Register/Pages/Railway-
Safety-Performance-Rep-2014.aspx>.
[2] European Railway Agency (ERA), Railway Safety Performance in the European
Union, 2013. <http://www.era.europa.eu/Document-Register/Pages/Railway-
Safety-Performance-Rep-2013.aspx>.
[3] European Railway Agency (ERA), Railway Safety Performance in the European
Union, 2012. <http://www.era.europa.eu/Document-Register/Pages/Railway-
Safety-Performance-in-the-European-Union-2012.aspx>.
[4] U. Zerbst et al., Safe life and damage tolerance aspects of railway axles – a
review, Eng. Fract. Mech. 98 (2012) 214–271.
[5] J.A. Benyon, A.S. Watson, The use of Monte-Carlo analysis to increase axle
inspection interval, in: Proceedings of the 13th int. Wheelset congress, Rome,
Italy, 2001, pp. 1–10.
[6] M. Luke, I. Varfolomeev, K. Lütkepohl, A. Esderts, Fracture mechanics
assessment of railway axles: experimental characterization and computation,
Eng. Fail. Anal. 17 (2010) 617–623.
[7] M. Luke, I. Varfolomeev, K. Lütkepohl, A. Esderts, Fatigue crack growth in
railway axles: assessment concept and validation tests, Eng. Fract. Mech. 78
(2011) 714–730.
[8] M. Madia et al., Stress intensity factor solutions for cracks in railway axles, Eng.
Fract. Mech. 78 (2011) 764–792.
[9] O. Yasniy, Y. Lapusta, Y. Pyndus, A. Sorochak, V. Yasniy, Assessment of lifetime
of railway axle, Int. J. Fatigue 50 (2013) 40–46.
[10] J. Schijve, Fatigue of Structures and Materials, Springer, New York, 2008.
[11] S. Beretta, M. Carboni, Variable amplitude fatigue crack growth in a mild steel
for railway axles: experiments and predictive models, Eng. Fract. Mech. 78
(2011) 848–862.
[12] T.L. Anderson, Fracture Mechanics: Fundamentals and Applications, second
ed., CRC Press, 1994.
[13] Z.X. Wu, Shape prediction of fatigue crack based on a given stress intensity
factor distribution, Key Eng. Mater. 353–358 (2007) 19–23.
[14] M. Ševčík, P. Hutař, M. Zouhar, L. Náhlík, Numerical estimation of the fatigue
crack front shape for a specimen with finite thickness, Int. J. Fatigue 39 (2012)
75–80.
[15] G.C. Sih, Y.D. Lee, Review of triaxial crack border stress and energy behavior,
Theoret. Appl. Fract. Mech. 12 (1989) 1–17.
[16] U. Zerbst, M. Schödel, H.Th. Beier, Parameters affecting the damage tolerance
behaviour of railway axles, Eng. Fract. Mech. 78 (2011) 793–809.
[17] V. Linhart, I. Černý, An effect of strength of railway axle steels on fatigue
resistance under press fit, Eng. Fract. Mech. 78 (2011) 731–741.
[18] M. Madia, S. Beretta, U. Zerbst, An investigation on the influence of rotary
bending and press fitting on stress intensity factors and fatigue crack growth
in railway axles, Eng. Fract. Mech. 75 (2008) 1906–1920.
[19] M. Ciavarella, M. Paggi, A. Carpinteri, One, no one, and one hundred thousand
crack propagation laws: a generalized Barenblatt and Botvina dimensional
analysis approach to fatigue crack growth, J. Mech. Phys. Solids 56 (2008)
3416–3432.
[20] NASGRO, Fracture Mechanics and Fatigue Crack Growth Analysis Software,
Reference Manual, 2002.
[21] J.A. Harter, AFGROW Users Guide and Technical Manual (1999).
[22] M. Klesnil, P. Lukáš, Fatigue of Metallic Materials, second rev. ed., Elsevier, New
York, 1992.
[23] P. Pokorný, L. Náhlík, P. Hutař, Influence of different crack propagation rate
descriptions on the residual fatigue lifetime of railway axles, Key Eng. Mater.
627 (2015) 469–472.
[24] D. Regazzi, S. Beretta, M. Carboni, Load interaction effects in medium and high
strength steels for railway axles, Procedia Mater. Sci. 3 (2014) 1965–1970.
[25] I. Varfolomeev, M. Luke, M. Burdack, Effect of specimen geometry on fatigue
crack growth rates for the railway axle material EA4T, Eng. Fract. Mech. 78
(2011) 742–753.
[26] I. Varfolomeev, M. Luke, S. Moroz, Experimental and numerical investigations
of fatigue crack growth in various specimen geometries, Procedia Eng. 2 (2010)
1829–1837.
[27] M. Traupe, H. Meinen, H. Zenner, Sichere und wirtschaftliche Auslegung von
Eisenbahnfahrwerken (2004).
[28] K. Lütkepohl, A. Esderts, M. Luke, I. Varfolomeev, Sicherer und wirtschaftlicher
Betrieb von Eisenbahnfahrwerken (2009).
[29] Residual Lifetime of the Railway Axle, Technical Report for Bonatrans Group,
a.s., Institute of Physics of Materials ASCR, 2012.
[30] WIDEM EU Project, Wheel-set Integrated Design and Effective Maintenance.
<http://www.widem.org>, 2007.
[31] P. Pokorný, L. Náhlík, P. Hutař, The effect of threshold value on the residual
fatigue lifetime of railway axles, in: 20th International Conference,
Engineering Mechanics, Svratka, Czech Republic, 2014, pp. 496–499.