An Investigation on Determining Surface Damage Tolerance of High-Speed Train Axles

Axles in service are easy to be impacted by foreign object damage rolled up by the aerodynamic effect, which reduce the safe, reliable and efficient operation of high-speed train. In order to determine the damage tolerance on axle surface, it is imperative to investigate the evolvement rule of defect propagation to crack and thus predict accurately the remaining strength of axles. Hence, fatigue experiments on full-scale axles and small-scale specimens with introduction of prefabricated defect have been performed to determine the impact damage tolerance size. An interpretation for defect acceptability, correlated to finite element analysis, is presented in terms of short crack principle based on fracture mechanical.