Failure Analysis of Rail

Joints

PRESENTED TO
Prof. Deepak Kumar

PRESENTED BY
HITESH SINGHAL
2015JIT2261

INTRODUCTION
For about 150 years, the steel rail has been at the very heart
of the world's railway systems.
Its main functions are to transmit wheel forces to the track
bed and together with the tread and flange of the wheel, to
guide vehicles.
The environment in which the rail works is harsh and the
forces endured by it are complex and variable.
Wheelrail contact conditions can result in severe wear, the
environment may lead to corrosion and the rail may even be
subjected to mechanical and thermal abuse during installation
and track maintenance operations.

INTRODUCTION
Fig. 1shows typical crack
failures found in rail webs
and whose origin are the
butt-welded joints.
As it can be observed in
Fig. 1(a) and (b), the crack
path is characterised by a
first part where the flaw
grows
in
longitudinal
direction, almost parallel to
the surface and a second
part where it presents two
angles.
Fig. 1(c)shows the scheme
of another typical fracture
pattern, where the crack
initially grows in longitudinal
direction and then it exhibits
a bifurcation, both at the
leading and trailing tips.

Fig.
1

Basic Requirement of Rail Joints

Two main types of rail joints are employed in modern railway
track: continuous welded rails (CWRs) and insulated rail
joints (IRJs).
There are two critical requirements; one is geometric and
other one is mechanical in nature.
One of the most basic geometric requirements for railway
tracks is the need for a smooth running track by lining up the
rail ends horizontally.
Prior to about 1970, rails were bolted together by using two
joint bars, one on each side of the web with 4 or 6 bolts
through the rail track as a geometric requirement.
Today, most rail sections are welded together except in tight
curves and other places that require the easy regular rail
replacement facilitated by joint bars.

Basic Requirement of Rail Joints

In terms of mechanical performance, these joint bars have

a lower vertical bending stiffness than the rail track itself.

As a result, large deflections in the joint region are

generated while wheels pass through.

The large deflections can accelerate track deterioration.

This in turn yields larger wheel forces caused by the

dynamics of the passing wheels and damaged tracks.

Accumulation of continuous damage and defects on IRJs

can be illustrated as a vicious cycle shown in figure 1.

Basic Requirement of Rail Joints

Functions of IRJ

The purpose of IRJs is to allow a railway signalling system to locate

trains by maintaining a short circuiting system.

The wheel sets act as conductors between the two running rails;
one rail has a low voltage current (signalling rail) and the other rail
acts a ground.

The IRJs section the signalling rails into isolation blocks. The train
locations are determined by identifying which rail section is being
short-circuited.

When a train passes a joint and enters a section, it triggers a signal

indicating that no other trains can enter into that section.

It is necessary for researchers to improve IRJs for longer track

service life, reliability and efficiency.

In Australia, the associated annual cost for maintenance and

replacement of IRJs is estimated to be $5.4 million direct and $ 1.1
million indirect costs annually.
Therefore there is a pressing need to closely examine the failure
mechanism of the existing IRJ designs with a view to improving
their reliability, service life and efficiency.

Failures Occurring in Rail Joints

IRJs are thus considered a weak but necessary component by

track maintenance departments because they are needed to
electrically insulate blocks of railway from each other.

When all the bolts of the joint are tight, it violates another
mechanical requirement of free axial movement of the rail
ends when rail temperature is higher than the neutral
temperature of the rail.

This axial deformation is necessary to avoid high axial force

build-up in rail causing track buckling.

If the cooking process during manufacturing of the IRJ is

carried out at a higher temperature than the rail temperature
in service, the rail joint may have a pull-apart problem rather
than track buckling.

Failure Occurring in Rail Joints

Due to this pull-apart problem, rail end delamination (figure

2) and bending of the bolts may result.

Both track stability and pull-apart problems are critical and

it is necessary to address them adequately to maintain
integrity and safety of railway track.

Figure 2: Delamination and damage of rail end and

end-post

IRJ Designs

Many IRJ designs are reported in the literature.

They are based on various supporting systems, alignment
of end post, end post materials, joint bar and insulation.

Figure 3 illustrates that adjacent ends of the rails are secured at the
same level by bolts through joint bars, and insulated end post material
is placed in between the rail ends for electrical isolation. Bolts and joint
bars are also isolated from the web of the rail by insulated material.

IRJ Designs
Figure 4

A symmetrically suspended joint

in between the sleepers

Figure 5

In relation to supported joints, a

discretely supported IRJ can b seen on
double timber Sleeper.

IRJ Designs

The position of end post material, its thickness and properties

are important in relation to dynamic behaviour and damage
of IRJ.
The end post material can be inserted in between two ends
of rail perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the rail, this
arrangement being called square IRJ (figure 6a).
Alternatively, it may be placed at 15 deg inclination with the
lateral axis of the rail, this being called inclined IRJ (figure
6b).

Fig. 6

IRJ Designs

Both of the IRJs are symmetrically suspended with respect to

sleepers. With the inclined IRJ, there is a slight possibility of
the whole wheel load bearing on a single end of the rail.

However, it is obvious in the case of square joints that when

wheel load passes over the gap between the rails, it is
carried by joint bars only.

Therefore, the gap between the rails (thickness of the end

post) is very important.

The thickness of the end post may vary from 5 mm to 10

mm.

IRJ Designs

Similar to all other railroad structures, the IRJs are placed on

a bed which contains several flexible layers: sleepers, pads
and ballasted structures.

The ballast structure possesses three layers called ballast,

sub-ballast and subgrade.

This is the most conventional track structure employed.

The IRJ is placed on the top of the structure fastened on the

sleeper.

Figure 7 pictures a traditional types of bedding employed.

The performance and behaviour of an IRJ depend not only on

the IRJ design
but also on the stiffness and damping of the
super rail structures.

Fig 7.

Failure Modes of IRJ

As mentioned earlier the bending stiffness of a rail joint is

much smaller than that of the rail. It is about one third.

This is a major weakness of the IRJ. The bending stiffness

depends on several factors such as bending stiffness of joint
bars, the tightness of the bolts and how well bars fit in rail
ends.

Another weakness is the soft end post material in the

interface of the rail ends, causing a small support
discontinuity at the gap when a wheel passes over it.

This can cause a vertical acceleration of the moving wheel

load and induce a dynamic force and stresses in the track.

Combining effects cause a failure readily at the IRJ compared

to elsewhere along a continuous rail.

Failure Modes of IRJ

Based on various worldwide designs of IRJs, the following are

the failure modes of IRJ:

1. Bond failure/delamination of end post

2. Broken joint bar and looseness of the bolt
3. Crushed end post and metal flow/material fatigue on
railhead
. The modes of failure of IRJs differ from country to country.
. Like: Metal flow or plastic deformation in the vicinity of IRJs is
a major problem in Australia, whereas delamination, bond
failure, broken joint bar, or looseness of the bolts are the
various modes of failure in India and other countries.

Failure Modes of IRJ

By examining a sample of twenty IRJs from revenue service

lines it was identified that most of the joints had more than
one defect.

The degradation modes analysis of these joints on a heavy

haul coal route found that maximum failure occurred by
virtue of bond failure (nearly 40%), followed by broken bolts
(25%), broken bar (17%) and end post rushed/battered (5%).

The bond failures (figures 8 and 9) are due to distressed IRJ

sub-grade and ballast layer support in track and high level of
shear stress under severe wheel loads.

The weakened epoxy IRJ bond allowed moisture entry and

larger deflection. A sign of rust is evident near the end post
(figure 8).

Failure Modes of IRJ

Figure 8: Failed glued bond in IRJ

Figure 9: End post crushed in IRJ due

to pull-apart

Failure Modes of IRJ

The wheel-rail contact impact and the associated longitudinal

stress due to wheel loads and perhaps also to thermal effects
contributed to bolt looseness.
This effect along with the larger deflection due to soft end
post material further worsen the structural integrity and
produces higher impact forces at the IRJ.
As a result, breaking of joint bar bolts (due to bending),
battered end post (figure 9) and broken joint bar (figure 10)
failures might occur.

Figure 10: Shear failure of joint bar due to shear

mode of failure

Failure Modes of IRJ

Railhead surface defects due to metal plasticity (metal flow)

in the vicinity of the IRJ is another type of failure mode.

Initiation of this failure mode depends on the presence of

running surface defects on the railhead (figure 11).

It can progress to railhead metal failure such as squashing

(figure 12) and chipping out (figure 13).

Key factors associated with this type of failure include high

impact factor due to rail end gap, rail end height mismatch
and instantaneous dip angle formation and the associated
loading rate dependent metal plasticity as the wheel load
exceeds the material yield point at the point of contact.

Failure Modes of IRJ

Figure 11: Running surface defect of IRJ

Figure 12: Squashing of railhead

Figure 13: A typical IRJ failure (chipping out) heavy haul

Engineering Analysis of IRJ

Rail joints are removed from the track when they are about to
fail mechanically.

Several types of inspections of appropriate frequency leading

to remaining service life estimation trends of the joints are
essential to determine the optimum time to take the joints
out of service.

Before they fail mechanically from defects such as joint bar

failure (bolt hole cracks), rail end break etc., rail end battering
due to metal flow is treated by grinding.

Plastic flow of rail materials across the end post may cause
the failure of the electrical signalling system.

Therefore railway track maintainers or signalling people grind

or cut the flow off with an angle grinder or a disc saw.

Engineering Analysis of IRJ

When bolts break or bend, they are replaced rather than

change the whole joint as a complete unit.

Epoxy failure is another mode of failure relating to the rail

signalling system integrity.

Whatever may be the case of failure, an accurate

determination of the remaining life of the joint is necessary to
take the joint out the track before any catastrophic failures.

Static and dynamic analysis using elasto-plastic material

modelling and fracture mechanics givse an indication of a life
span and a standard can be defined to set a remaining
service life that can be used to schedule the joint removal
from the track.

QUESTIONS
1.

,
are the two main types of rail
joints that are employed in modern railway track:
Ans: continuous welded rails (CWRs) and insulated rail joints (IRJs)
2.

,
are to be considered while
designing IRJ
Ans: alignment of end post, end post materials.
3.

are the different layers of IRJ

bed
Ans: sleepers, pads and ballasted structures.
4.

,
,
layers of ballast structure
Ans: ballast, sub-ballast and subgrade.
5.

is a mode of failure

Ans: Bond failure/delamination of end post

are the different

THANK
YOU