Assessment of lifetime of railway axle

Main laws of influence of stress ratio on fatigue crack growth rate in the material of railway axles were revealed and statistical distributions of characteristics of cyclic crack’s resistance for steel were determined. The technique of modelling of fatigue crack growth in the material of railway axle under regular and random loading was developed, taking into account statistical characteristics of mechanical properties. It gives the ability to obtain statistical distribution of final crack depth for the given number of loading cycles and the distribution of lifetime for the given before final crack depth.