Broken Rail Modelling

Broken Rail Modelling

Broken rails are a significant cause of derailments on freight railroads. For roughly every 200 rail breaks there is one derailment. And some fraction of those are due to surface fatigue. But given the billions of cracks on rails, what are the combinations of conditions that lead to a surface fatigue initiated broken rail? The ICRI-BrokenRails group is working to develop a comprehensive model of the process that includes rail surface fatigue initiation and propagation, and then to a prediction of breaking by comparing rail integrity (strength) with the loading environment (stress). And then once there is a rail break, what conditions are responsible for the 1 in 200 events leading to a derailment?

If you would like to participate please contact Eric Magel.

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