Development and validation of innovative damage tool to study wear, RCF and corrugation for railway applications

Nowadays, one of the issues in the railway field is the decreasing in life of wheel and rail. The main damage is caused by wear, rolling contact fatigue and corrugation which deeply affects wheel and rail. These phenomena are closely connected and directly impact both on vehicle dynamics (comfort, stability, safety, etc..) and on the costs (line management, maintenance, etc.), decreasing the useful life of wheel and rail. To face these problems and detect abnormal operating conditions, this Ph.D. work aims at developing a modelling approach for railway applications that effectively combines wear, Rolling Contact Fatigue (abbreviated to the acronym RCF) and corrugation models.