Analysis of the residual life of train axles considering the combined effects of wheel flats and axle impact damage
XU Ke
LU Chun
LI Qian
LIANG Hongqin
TAO Gongquan
DENG Yongquan
WEN Zefeng
Abstract：To investigate the fatigue damage of axles in a certain type of high-speed EMU,a vehicle-track rigid-flexible coupled dynamic model and a wheel set finite element analysis model were employed to analyze the crack propagation behavior of axles under the combined effects of wheel flat and axle impact damage.The influence of different train speeds and varying wheel flat sizes on the residual life of the axle was studied.The results indicate that the residual life of axles with impact damage is closely related to the train speed and the size of the wheel flat.When both wheel flat and axle impact damage coexist,there exists a critical speed corresponding to the wheel flat at which the residual life of the axle is minimized.If the train speed remains constant,the residual life of the axle decreases rapidly with the increase in wheel flat size.At a train speed of 300 km/h,with a wheel flat length of 30 mm and the presence of axle impact damage,the residual life of the axle is 583 700 km,which is close to the interval for a Level 3 maintenance cycle and requires corresponding treatment according to regulations.
Keywords：Axle fatigueCrackWheel flatImpact damageResidual lifeExtended finite element
Publication Date：2025-12-15
Online Publishing Date：2026-09-12(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：11( 68-78 )