In the year 1998 near Eschede the German ICE-high speed train Wilhelm-Conrad Röntgen got into an accident on its way from Munich to Hamburg with catastrophic results. The broken wheel tyre of the rubber-sprung wheel finally was identified as reason for the accident. The following paper deals with numerical stress analyses as well as with fracture mechanical evaluations for this ICE-wheel tyre fracture. In the case of the fracture of the ICE-wheel tyre according to the majority of experts a sufficient calculated safety with respect to fatigue strength was given. This statement is true for the new as well as for the re-profiled wheel tyre with a diameter of 862 mm. The initiation of the crack hence cannot be explained by fatigue strength concepts. Most likely it was an incidental event, that could not be predicted. Fracture mechanical analyses show, that an initial crack with a depth of just 1.5 mm at the inner side of the wheel tyre will start to grow along the whole crack front. In the beginning the crack grew with a semi-circular shape, while in the following its shape became rather semi-elliptical with a faster growth along the surface. After a long period of fatigue crack growth the final rapture occurred very late. Moreover for a contact wheel force Q = 98 kN excellent agreement can be found between the finite-element simulation and reality as far as the fatigue crack growth and the fracture surface is concerned, respectively. The fatigue crack propagation in the wheel tyre occurred in a very discontinuous manner. This means, that phases of slow crack growth or even temporary crack arrest alternated with phases of high crack growth rates. The experiments, which were performed at the Institute of Applied Mechanics at University of Paderborn for the wheel tyre material B5 indicate a long and extended period of fatigue crack growth before the wheel tyre finally failed.
Fracture in a rubber-sprung railway wheel
Bruch in einem gummigefederten Eisenbahnrad
2005
14 Seiten, 19 Bilder, 10 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Katastrophe , Eisenbahnradreifen , Hochgeschwindigkeitszug , Materialbruch , Schadenanalyse , Schaden , Schadenursachenforschung , Rissausbreitung , Risseinleitung , bruchmechanische Prüfung , mechanische Spannungsverteilung , Bruchgefüge , Finite-Elemente-Methode , Ermüdungsriss , Fahrzeugsicherheit
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