Thermal stresses and shakedown in wheel/rail contact

Sliding friction between railway wheels and rails results in considerable contact temperatures and gives rise to severe thermal stresses at the surfaces of the wheels and rails. An approximate analytical solution is presented for a line contact model. The increased bulk temperature of the wheel after a long period of constant operating conditions is also taken into account. The thermal stresses have to be superimposed on the mechanical contact stresses. They reduce the elastic limit of the wheel and rail, and yielding begins at lower mechanical loads. When residual stresses build up during the initial cycles of plastic deformation, the structure can carry higher loads with a purely elastic response in subsequent load cycles. This phenomenon is referred to as shakedown. Due to the distribution of temperature, the rail surface is generally subjected to higher stresses than the wheel surface. This can cause structural changes in the rail material and hence rail damage.