ESIS TC24 "Integrity of Railway Structures”
| Chairman | Prof. S. Beretta | Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Meccanica |
| Chairman | Prof. Roderick Smith | Imperial College, London E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it |
TC24 UPDATE 2011
On 3-4th March 2001, a meeting of TC24 has been hosted in London by RSSB (Rail Safety Standard Board). The workshop was based around new RSSB research work which, for the first time, allows railway engineers to understand the complex loading and environment of railway axles.
The meeting has been the opportunity to show that RSSB research provides quantified models, based on first principles, for the damage to railway axles caused by corrosion and by mechanical impacts and to compare it with other approaches.
Moreover, other technical presentations allowed to better understand the overall importance and mutual relationship among corrosion fatigue, NDT controls and fleet management and safety. The workshop has been organized into 5 sessions attended by almost 70 technical staffs and a handful of academics.
List of presentations – Day 1
| Welcome | Len Porter, Chief Executive, RSSB |
| Axle fatigue overview | Prof. Rod Smith, Imperial College, London |
| The technical context for RSSB’s work | Ken Timmis, Rolling Stock Engineer, RSSB |
| Accurate prediction of axle load spectra | Mathew Beagles, DeltaRail |
| How good are axle non-destructive testing techniques? | John Rudlin, TWI |
| Early laboratory studies of corrosion fatigue | Dr Michele Carboni, Politecnico di Milano |
| Corrosion fatigue and European axle steels | Prof. Stefano Beretta, Politecnico di Milano |
| Damage quantification on real railway axles | John Davenport, TWI |
| Technical challenges in the Axle Safety Model | Andrew Watson, DeltaRail |
List of presentations – Day 2
| Railway axle failures caused by corrosion and corrosion fatigue – the German experience | Dr Katrin Maedler, Deutsche Bahn |
| GB axle failures caused by corrosion fatigue | Andrew Watson, DeltaRail |
| Experience on axle defects | Roy Archer, Applied Inspection |
| Serco’s approach to life cycle costs and corrosion | John Benyon / Adam Beagles, Serco |
| LURSAK : The new high performances axle protection | Mr S Cantini, Lucchini RS |
| Demonstration of the Axle Safety model | Andrew Watson, DeltaRail |
Click here to download the complete presentations
TC24 UPDATE 2010
Prof Beretta and Zerbst have organized a special issue about about “Damage Tolerance of Railway Axles” which contains most of the contributions at the workshop held in Milan on October 2008. The Special Issue (three papers have just to submit the revised version) has taken a long time for the preparation but it is now at the arrival line (it will appear within 2010). This special issue will also contain a cooperative paper (a real result of the TC24 activity) incorporating SIF solutions by GKSS, PoliMi and IWM that had been presented independently by the three bodies.
In Autumn 2009 Prof. Zerbst moved to the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM, Berlin, Germany). He will host in autum a meeting of a forum for discussion of methods for structural integrity of railway axles. The following aspects are envisaged:
- High cycle and ultra-high cycle fatigue of railway axles
- Damage relevant loading amplitudes in high cycle fatigue
- Relationship between different design philosophies (safe life vs. damage tolerance)
- Fatigue strength and initial defects (non-metallic inclusions, corrosion pits etc.)
- Propagation of short cracks in axles
- The impact of corrosion It is intended to provide ample time for discussion.
To enhance discussion and informal exchange of ideas, attendance will be limited to about 50 persons. The date is not yet fixed. Possible dates are September 27-28, October 11-12 and October 25-26. This meeting will also be the opportunity for a presentation of the UK Project RSSB-T728 and of the new EU projects that will start in Fall 2010 (WOLAXIM and EUREKA). TC24 plans to be the place where the results of the different projects could be shared and harmonized.
There is also a plan to involve in TC24 meetings also the ERA (European Railway Agency) Committee that was established after the Viareggio accident, where a broken axle caused the train derailment with the disastrous final explosion of a tank wagon.
TC24 UPDATE 2009
Prof Rossmanith held at TU Wien, on 17-18 April 2008, a workshop dedicated to “From Rail-Wheel Contact to Rail Fracture – Light RailSystems –Trams and Underground”. The list of presentations:
- “Influencing RCF and Wear by Different Rail Steels and Contact Conditions” R. Stock -Voestalpine, Austria
- “Cracks in Switch Rails” G. Budnitzki, K.O. Edel – BWG GmbH, Germany
- “High Pressure torsion – A useful tool for microstructural Investigations on Rail Steels” Hohenwarter, Montaniuniversitat Leoben, Austria
- “Fracture Mechanics Analysis of Growth of Rolling Contact Fatigue Cracks” T. Schnitzer - Siemens AG Sector, Germany
- “Wheel-Rail contact problesm associated with Subways” P. Mittermayr - Mittermayr Scientific Consulting, Austria
- “Rail grinding – an effective method to control the wheel-Rail interface and prevent fatigue damage” W. Schoech – Speno International, Switzerland
- “Fractal Analysis of Deformation Structures” J- Schreiber – IZFP Dresden, Germany
- “Rolling Contact Fatigue in Head-Hardened Rails” H.P. Rossmanith, F. Loibnegger – TU Wien, E. Fiscmeister, Wiener Linien, Austria
On 13-14 October 2008, Prof. Beretta hosted a TC24 workshop dedicated to the “Damage tolerance of railway axles”. The workshop was
the opportunity to discuss some of the results obtained in different cooperative projects in Europe.
The complete list of the presentations, that were delivered to an audience of 70 participants from different european countries, is:
- "Broken axles: moving to solutions of a long standing problem" R. Smith - Imperial College, UK
- “UK AXLE: Service loads in axles and their effects on the axle life” M. Beagles, DeltaRail, UK
- “Damage tolerance investigations on railway axles” U. Zerbst, M. Schodel – GKSS, Germany
- "DEUFRAKO: Crack propagation behavior on third- and full-scale railway axles" A. Esderts, K Lütkepoh - TU Clausthal, Germany
- “Damage tolerance of TGV axles” F. Cocheteaux, SNCF, France
- “DEUFRAKO: Effect of specimen geometry on fatigue crack growth rates in an A4T material” I. Varfolomeyev, M. Burdack, M. Luke - IWM, Germany
- “WIDEM: Estimation of Load spectra for integrity assessment of an high speed train wheelset” S. Bruni, F. Braghin, F. Resta - PoliMi, Italy S. Cervello - Lucchini RS, Italy M. Grosse-Hovest – LBF, Germany
- “The effect of steady torsion on small crack initiation and propagation under rotating bending: multiaxial fatigue and mixed-mode cracking” M. de Freitas, Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal
- “WIDEM: Damage tolerance and design review for the axles of an high speed train” S. Beretta, M. Carboni - PoliMi, Italy J. Rudlin, L. Wei - TWI, UK
- "Numerical Investigations on an Engineering Approach for Analysis of Fretting Fatigue in Press-Fits" T. Bruder, L. Voigt – LBF, Germany
- “DEUFRAKO: Fatigue crack growth behaviour in railway axle materials under constant and variable amplitude loading” M. Luke, M. Burdack, I. Varfolomeyev, IWM, Germany
- “Longitudinal Cracking of Railway Axles” N. Gubeljac - University of Maribor, Slovenia
- “Investigations on fatigue crack growth under variable amplitude loading in wheelset axles” H. Richard, M. Sander – University of Paderborn, Germany
- "An effect of strength of railway axle steels on fatigue resistance under press fitting" V Linhart, I. Černý, SVUM, Czech
The working days were closed by two round table discussions:
- “Determination of UT POD curves for railway axles” by M. Carboni – PoliMI, Italy;
- “SIF solutions in railway axles” by M. Madia – PoliMi, Italy.
The workshop was very successful; it provided an excellent opportunity for the dissemination of the EU 6th Framework project WIDEM results. It also brought together the leading European intellectual experts in railway wheelsets for a review of contemporary work which, clearly, was state of the art. The workshop demonstrated that there is a high level of interest in the subject which has a very high level of economic value to industry. As a consequence industry is very enthusiastic in its support for academic research in the problem fundamentals. In addition to the important WIDEM and DEUFRAKO work, significant new developments were unveiled during the workshop. There is a great deal of attention focussed on to contemporary problem areas of railway axle design. Although not linked to specific axle designs, difficulties in dealing with crack initiation in axle radius transitions received a great deal of attention.
Future actions
i) Beretta and Zerbst to submit Elsevier and Prof. Schwalbe (EFM Editor) a special issue about “Damage Tolerance of Railway Axles”;
ii) a cooperative paper incorporating SIF solutions by GKSS, PoliMi and IWM;
iii) TC24 members will also meet at the ‘Railway Session’ at ICF12 (Ottawa).
TC24 UPDATE 2008
A workshop titled “Fatigue and Damage Tolerance of Railway Rails “ of TC24 was held in Paris on 10-11 May 2007.
Totally, seventeen lectures were presented, namely:
• “An Overview of the DEUFRAKO/NOVUM Project” by L. Girardi, P. Pouligny (SNCF, Paris, France) & R. Heyder (DB, Kirchmöser, Germany);
• “Practical Examples of Rail Maintenance at SNCF” by P. Pouligny (SNCF Paris, France);
• “Research Activities on Rail Fatigue at the School of Mechanical & Systems Engineering” by A. Kapoor & D. Fletcher (University of Newcastle, U.K.);
• “A Numerical 3D Model to Study Plastic Ratchetting Damage of a Tramcar Line” by S. Beretta , G. Bucca & S. Foletti (Politecnico di Milano, Italy);
• “From Head Checks to Rail Fracture” by H.P. Rossmanith, E. Fischmeister & F. Loibnegger (VUT-Mechanics, Wiener Linien, Austria);
• “Rolling Contact Fatigue - the Role of the Wheel” by S.D. Iwnicki (Manchester Metropolitan University, U.K.);
• “Contact Mechanics of the Wheel/Rail System for Rough or Uneven Surfaces” by W. Daves (Materials Center Leoben, Austria);
• “Damage Evolution in a Rail Steel: Investigation on RCF and Wear Competition” by G. Donzella, M. Faccoli, A. Mazzù, C. Petrogalli & R. Roberti (University Brescia, Italy);
• “The Effect of Track Stiffness on the Stresses at Rail Joints” by Roger Allen (U.K.);
• “Critical Defect Size and its Implications for Bending Fatigue in Rails” by Lin Drewett (Corus Rail Technologies Swinden, U.K.);
• “Short Overview over Current Research Projects at CHARMEC Dealing with Rail Fatigue and Rail Fracture” by R. Lunden (CHALMERS, Gothenburg, Sweden);
• “Rail Fracture in Rails for the Swedish Heavy Haul Line” by R. Lunden (CHALMERS, Gothenburg, Sweden);
• “Numerical Modelling of Crack Propagation in Rails” by H. Chollet, M. Sebes, H. Maitournam & Z. Moumni (INRETS + LMS + MECAMIX, Paris, Lyon, France);
• “Damage Tolerance Investigations on Rails” by U. Zerbst, M. Schödel (GKSS Geesthacht, Germany) & R. Heyder (DB, Kirchmöser, Germany);
• “Fatigue Tests on Notched Rails” by D. Schöne & C.-P. Bork (BAM Berlin, Germany);
• “Rail Stresses due to Adhesion and Braking Forces” by Y. Berthier (INSA, Lyon, France);
• “The Effect of Arc Welding Repairs on Rail Geometry” by Y. Berthier (INSA, Lyon, France).
Selected contributions to these meetings will be published as a special issue of the Engineering Fracture Mechanics on “Fatigue and Damage Tolerance of Railway Rails”.
Guest editor of this issue is Uwe Zerbst (Institute for Materials Research, GKSS Research Centre).
A workshop titled “From Rail-Wheel Contact to Rail Fracture – Light Rail Systems - Trams and Undergrounds“ of TC24 was held in Vienna (Austria) on 17-18 April 08.
The workshop was organized jointly by the following institutions:
- ESIS - Austria,
- Vienna University of Technology:
- TU WIEN - TVFA
- Institute of Mechanics & Mechatronics A2
- Institute of Railway Engineering, Traffic Economics and Ropeways
- Wiener Linien GmbH & Co KG.
TC24 members attendinding the workshop in Austria
TC24 is going to organise a workshop on the:
“Damage Tolerance of Railway Axles”
held in Milan in Autumn 2008 (13-14 October) and hosted by the Politecnico di Milano
The attendance will be free of charge. It is envisaged to publish at least some of the contributions in a special issue of a scientific journal.
Since Politecnico di Milano will be in charge of the local administration we ask you to contact Prof. Stefano Beretta ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) for registration and further questions.
TC24 UPDATE 2007
U. Zerbst – GKSS (Germany)
R.A. Smith – Imperial College (UK)
S. Beretta – Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
L. Drewitt – Corus Group (UK)
G. Donzella – Università di Brescia (Italy)
M. Guagliano – Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
F. Lombardo – Lucchini Sidermeccanica (Italy)
A. Mazzu – Università di Brescia (Italy)
1. Future plans
• Zerbst proposes to hold next Workshop/TC24 Meeting in Paris on spring 2007, in concomitance with the conclusion of a French-German jointed research project on rails
• Beretta proposes a Workshop/TC24 meeting in Spring 2008 in Milan, focussed on axles, summarizing the results of Widem and Deufrako Projects;
• Smith proposes a future Workshop/TC24 meeting in London entitled “Load and infracstructure in railway application”, including several topics, like fatigue and fracture of rails, crashworthiness, structures (bridges), multiaxial fatigue of wheels, load spectra, climate changes, lightweighting, non-destructive controls.
2. Proposals for reports from the Committee
It has been discussed about the best way to present the activities of the TC24 members, wich at the moment seems to be the special issues of Elsevier journals. The space reserved by Elsevier for ESIS could be used to announce these special issues and future TC24 meetings.
3. Membership of the Committee
In the past, the requirement for TC24 membership was the ESIS membership, i.e. the participation to the correspondent national ESIS-related groups. Anyway, a better definition of TC24 permanent membership is worthwhile. It would be usefull a revision of the TC24 mailing list, including people interested in the Committee activities and people attending past meetings.
Workshop
On the following day a Workshop entitled “Structural Integrity of Railway Wheels and Wheel/Rail Interface” was held at the University of Brescia with an attendance of approx. 60 delegates. The following presentations were done:
- “Railway Wheels: The Background”
R.Smith, Imperial College
- “Influence of the contact pressure distribution on the behavior of internally cracked railway wheels”
M.Guagliano, L.Vergani , Politecnico di Milano
- “A numerical 3D model to study plastic ratchetting damage of a tramcar line”
S.Beretta, G.Bucca, S.Foletti, Politecnico di Milano
- “RCF-wear competition in railway wheel-rail interface”
G.Donzella, M.Faccoli, A.Mazzù, C.Petrogalli, R.Roberti, Università di Brescia
- “Ultrasonic analysis of wheel-rail contact”
B.Leban, M.Pau, Università di Cagliari
- “A simple approach to indirect control of railway vehicles rolling surfaces”
R.Ciuffi, F.Piccioli, Università di Firenze
- “Investigations on railway components - some progress”,
U.Zerbst, GKSS, Geesthacht
- “Innovative bainitic steel grade for solid wheels tested in artic heavy haul operations”
A.Ghidini*, A.Gianni*, A.Ekberg**, Lucchini Sidermeccanica and Chalmers University
- “Photoelastic analysis of railway wheels in presence of cracks”
C.Colombo, M.Guagliano, M. Sangirardi, L.Vergani, Politecnico di Milano
TC24 members attendinding the workshop in Brescia (from right): Zerbst (chairman), Drewitt, Smith (chairman), Guagliano, Donzella and Beretta.
TC24 UPDATE 2006
A Special Meeting on “Damage Tolerance of Railway Axles” has been held at GKSS Research Centre Geesthacht, from 2 February to 3 February 2005. The meeting has been attended by 34 people from different countries .
Activity and presentations After an approval of the minutes of the previous meetings and the Terms of References several technical presentations have been held in 2 sessions. In particular the presentations have been :
o R.A. Smith (Imperial College, London): Railway axles: new pressures cause an old problem to resurface
o J. Benyon (AEAT Rail)
o S. Beretta & M. Carboni (Politecnico di Milano, Milan): Propagation lifetime of railway axles: experiments and probabilistic approach
o S. Beretta, M. Carboni (Politecnico di Milano, Milan) :A comparison of crack evolution between plane and rotating bending
o I. Cerny (SVUM, Praha): Fracture Mechanics Activitiesfor Railway Axles in Czech Republic
o L. Josefson (Chalmers University, Göteburg): Design and Materials for Railway Axles in Sweden
o U. Zerbst (GKSS Research Centre, Geesthacht): Quantitative requirements on non-destructive testing of railway axles based on fracture mechanics.
The presentations were followed by lively discussions that highlighted the topics that need to be investigated for establishing correctly propagation lifetimes and inspection intervals of railway axles. At the end of the presentations, a brief update of the current research projects on axles (UK Axle, DEUFRAKO, WIDEM) was made.
Election of ChairmenAt the end of the first technical session, Schwalbe introduces the discussion for a new election of TC24 Chairmen since himself is going to retire in April and Ringsberg has left the business of railways (he is now employed by Volvo). In particular Schwalbe introduces two candidates: Prof. R. Smith (Imperial College, London) and Dr. U. Zerbst (GKSS, Geesthacht). After a brief discussion, R. Smith and U. Zerbst have been unanimously elected as the new chairmen for TC24.
Future actionsAfter ICF11 where a Railway Session will be held, the next activity of TC24 to be planned for Fall 2006 is the pubblication of a state-of-the art paper summarizing the facts and the open points in the life calculation of railway axles.
TC24 UPDATE 2004
In April 2003 a two-day workshop for discussing the application of structural integrity concepts to railway components have been organised and hosted by K.H. Schwalbe and Uwe Zerbst at GKSS. The meeting had 31 participants from 9 European countries and Japan: There have been 15 technical presentations which stimulated a very lively discussion with a very nice atmosphere (see photo).
In particular, the majority of the presentations have been submitted in an extended written version to a Special Issue of Engineering Fracture Mechanics (Guest Editors: K.H. Schwalbe & U. Zerbst) which is due to appear in 2004.
Concerning possibilities for other events and future activities, results of the final discussion were:
- It was decided to propose the constitution of a new technical committee to ESIS Council: This was approved at he Seville Council meeting and the new body was given the name TC24;
- A second meeting in Fall autumn of 2003 in Geesthacht in order to discuss the Terms of Reference of TC 24 list of structural integrity issues;
- Technical papers devoted to advertise structural integrity concepts among railway engineers.
After a discussion, consensus was reached about the following points:
- The Terms of Reference proposed by R. Allen were adopted;
- It is necessary to improve contact with 'railway forums' such as Wheelset Congress and CM2003;
- The TC24 should develop technical consensus on specific items by producing technical recommendations that could then be adopted by industry and/or by regulation bodies such as UIC.
- The next meeting will be in Milan after the special railway issue has appeared.
Minutes of the first meeting (Workshop on the Application of Fracture Mechanics to Railway Components).