Residual Stress in Rails, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1992 Effects on Rail Integrity and Railroad Economics Volume II: Theoretical and Numerical Analyses Engineering Applications of Fracture Mechanics Series, Vol. 12-13

Rail integrity is a current application of engineering fracture mechanics at a practical level. Although railroad rails have been manufactured and used for more than a century, it is only in the last ten years that the effects of their crack propagation and fracture characteristics have been considered from a rational viewpoint. The J,Jractical objectives are to develop damage tolerance ~delines for rail inspection and to improve the fracture resistance of new rail productiOn. Rail fatigue crack propagation rates and fracture resistance are strongly influenced by residual stresses, which are introduced into the rail both during proouction and in service. Therefore, the rail residual stress field must be well understood before fracture mechanics can be usefully applied to the subject of rail integrity. The three-dintensional character of rail and its stress fields make it essential to apply both experimental and analytical methods in order to twderstand the effects of pro­ duction and service variables on residual stress and the effects of the stress on fatigue crack propagation and fracture. This volume brings to~ether field observations and experimental stress analysis of railroad rails in the Umted States and Europe. The ongoing search for an efficient and accurate technique is emphasized. A companion volume brings together several analytical investigations, based on advanced compu­ tational mechanics methods, for correlation of the experimental data as well as eval­ uation of the effects of residual stress on rail integrity.

Foreword. Editors' Preface. Glossary and Conversion Factors. 1. Catastrophic Web Cracking of Railroad Rail; R.K. Steele, M.W. Joerms, D. Utrata, G.F. Carpenter. 2. Rail Fracture Inspection on the Heavily Loaded Railway Line Tczew-Katowice; Z. Swiderski. 3. Detail Fracture Growth Rates in Curved Track at the Facility for Accelerated Service Testing; P. Clayton, Y.H. Tang. 4. Plans and Progress of Controlled Experiments on Rail Residual Stress Using the EMS-60 Machine; Z. Swiderski. 5. Modification of the EMS-60 Testing Machine to Simulate Rolling Contact Loads in Service; J. Piotrowski. 6. Effect of Train Load Spectra on Crack Growth in Rail Steel; D.A. Jablonski, R.M. Pelloux. 7. Self-Adaptive Guide for Scheduling Rail Inspection in Service; O. Orringer. 8. Comparative Evaluation of Several Alternative Methods for Measuring Rail Residual Stress; C.H. Cundiff, R.C. Rice. 9. Neutron Diffraction Determinations of Residual Stress Patterns in Railway Rails; G.A. Webster, P.J. Webster, M.A.M. Bourke, K.S. Low, G. Mills, H.J. McGillivray, D.F. Cannon, R.J. Allen. 10. Moiré Interferometry and its Potential for Application to Residual Stress Measurements in Rails; R. Czarnek, J. Lee, S.-Y. Lin. 11. Experiences in Ultrasonic Measurement of Rail Residual Stress; J. Deputat, J. Szelazek, A. Kwaszczynska-Klimek, A. Miernik. 12. Investigation of residual Stress by Penetration Method; M. Bijak-Zochowski. 13. Residual Stress Measurements at Rail Surface and Inside Rail Head; R. Radomski.