STATIC ANALYSIS OF RAIL ROAD WHEEL

Date-19-March-2010
 Contents Page No

1. Objective 1

2. Geometry Details 2

3. Materials&Properties 3

4. Description 4

5. FEA model 5

6. Boundary Conditions 6

7. Results 7

8. Conclusion 8
 1. Objective-To study the static behavior of rail road wheel at two loads using
Finite element analysis (FEA) for two different material compositions.

2. Geometry Details

Fig.1

3. Materials: Analysis has been carried out for two materials, both existed and the
new material. Chemical compositions of material are shown in following tables.

Chemical composition(weight %)
Name C Mg Si V Cr Ni Mn Fe
Material 1 IS 228 0.37 0 0.15 0.05 0.3 0.3 1.12 Bal.
Material 2 SAE 1045 Steel 0.33 0.13 0.29 0.04 0.14 0.49 0.9 Bal.

Table.1

Mechanical properties
Young's Poisson
Material Modulus(Mpa) Ratio Density(Kg/m3)
IS 228 2.04E+05 0.3
SAE 1045 Steel 2.06E+05 0.33 7800

Table.2

Mechanical properties of SAE 1045 steel

Modulus of elasticity 206000 MPa
Tensile yield stress (0.2% offset 761 MPa
Cyclic yield stress (0.2% offset) 580 MPa
Ultimate tensile stress 781 MPa\
True fracture stress 647 MPa

4. Description

FEA functionality

Fig.2
The functionality of FEA will be as shown in Fig.1.Analyst need to take the feed
back from the initial design parameters and can asses the new proerties.To get the
optimized design one should carry multiple no of analyses. This analysis mainly
carries totally four cases, for two different materials. Design feed back may be at
any stage, like geometry, material and loading conditions. Here it is mainly
considered material as the key parameter

Methodology:
A railroad wheel is usually rigidly mounted on a steel shaft. Due to the high axle
load and small contact area of the wheel/rail interface, the stresses at contact
region are very high. To overcome the limitations of the traditional approaches for
the wheel/rail contact problem, a 3D elasto-plastic finite element model is needed.
After comparing several possible approaches, a simulation methodology for
wheel/rail contact analysis is proposed in this analysis. 3D finite element model
and can accurately calculate the 3D stress response in the contact region. Next, it
includes both material and geometric nonlinearity. It can be used to simulate large
and complex wheel motions. Different meshing is applied to the full model using
3D element (SOLID 45 in ANSYS). In the contact region, relatively finer mesh is
used. At the wheel center, a pilot point is connected to the wheel using some rigid
link elements. All the external loading and boundary conditions of the wheel are
applied on the pilot point. On the possible contact areas of the railhead and the
wheel tread, area contact elements (CONTACT 174 and TARGET 170 inANSYS)
are used corresponding to the geometry mesh of the wheel. The contact algorithm
is augmented Lagrangian method. Friction effect (0.3) is included into the material
properties of the contact element. The elements used for analysis is shown below

Elements used
Component Name Type No of elements
Wheel Solid92 3-d-Tetreahedral 131434
Rail Solid92 3-d-Tetreahedral 5000
Contact Inter face on
Wheel Conact174 2-d-Triangular 600
Contact Inter face on Rail Target170 2-d-Triangular 600
For Load application Rigids(Cerig) 1-d-Cerig 1
Dummy Mass Mass21 0-d 1

Table-3

About Element:

SOLID92-3-D 10-Node Tetrahedral Structural Solid

SOLID92 Element Description

SOLID92 has a quadratic displacement behavior and is well suited to model

irregular meshes (such as produced from various CAD/CAM systems). The
element is defined by ten nodes having three degrees of freedom at each node:
translations in the nodal x, y, and z directions. The element also has plasticity,
creep, swelling, stress stiffening, large deflection, and large strain capabilities

Element Features:

Nodes I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R
Degrees of Freedom UX, UY, UZ
Special Features Plasticity, Creep, Swelling, Stress stiffening, large deflection,
large strain
 Figure 3 SOLID92 Geometry

5- FEA-Model and boundary conditions:

FIG: 4
Loading Details-

There are mainly two loads considered in this analysis. Two loads applied on the Wheel
component through a pilot mass element. Given loadings per axle are

Load 1-200(kN)

Load 2-1.53*200(kN)

Load 3-2.0*200 (kN)

Load 4-2.5*200(kN)

As there is symmetry existed in the model it is considered that the load get shared by two
wheels. The magnitude of load will get halved.

Assumptions-

 Contact surface considered as rigid homogeneous material.

 Loadings considered that acing on axle as concentrated load.
 Design temperature taken as room temperature

Fig:5
7-Results

1. Material IS 228 Case:1- Results

Vonmises Stress plot (Mpa)

Shear stress (τxy)(Mpa)

 Shear stress(τyz)(Mpa)

Resultant Deformation (Usum)(mm)

 Contact Pressure (Mpa)

2. Material IS 228 Case:2-Results

Vonmises Stress plot (Mpa)

Shear stress (τxy)(Mpa)

Shear stress (τxz)(Mpa)

Resultant Deformation (Usum)(mm)

Contact Pressure (Mpa)

3. Material IS 228 Case:3-Results

Vonmises Stress plot (Mpa)

Shear stress (τxy)(Mpa)

 Shear stress (τxz)(Mpa)

Resultant Deformation (Usum)(mm)

 Contact Pressure (Mpa)

4. Material IS 228 Case:4-Results

Vonmises Stress plot (Mpa)

Shear stress (τxy)(Mpa)

Shear stress (τyz)(Mpa)

Resultant Deformation (Usum)(mm)

Contact Pressure (Mpa)

5. Material SAE 1045steel Case:1-Results

Vonmises Stress plot (Mpa)

Shear stress (τxy)(Mpa)

 Shear stress (τxz) (Mpa)

Resultant Deformation (Usum)(mm)

 Contact Pressure (Mpa)

6. Material SAE 1045steel Case: 2-Results

Vonmises Stress plot (Mpa)

Shear stress (τxy)(Mpa)

Shear stress (τyz)(Mpa)

Resultant Deformation (Usum)(mm)

Contact Pressure (Mpa)

7. Material SAE 1045steel Case:3-Results

Vonmises Stress plot (Mpa)

Shear stress (τxy) (Mpa)

 Shear stress (τyz) (Mpa)

Resultant Deformation (Usum)(mm)

 Contact Pressure (Mpa)

8. Material SAE 1045steel Case: 4-Results

Vonmises Stress plot (Mpa)

Shear stress (τxy) (Mpa)

Shear stress (τyz) (Mpa)

Resultant Deformation (Usum)(mm)

Contact Pressure (Mpa)

Conclusion-Static analysis has been carried out in four cases for two materials. It is
concluded that SAE 1045 steel having better characters to IS-228.It is observed that the
Factor of safety deteriorating with the increment in loads. According to FOS the loads
acceptable for the given geometry and material is up to 2.0E5 N on one wheel.The fourth
load condition (2.5E5 N) suggestible as FOS is almost one.
The loads on rail road wheels are mainly cyclic loads, so it is mainly subjected
to fatigue. Due to these cyclic loads there will be formation of crack propagation in wheel
which leads to fatigue failure.
Working temperature is considered as design temperature. There might be
possibility for inducing thermal stresses with rise in temperature.