Structural Assessment of Parabolic Leaf Springs for Freight Wagons based on the Dynamic Operating Conditions: The Initial Phase for Fatigue Analysis

Abstract

Over the recent years, the Portuguese railway sector has suffered a significant shortage of resources, generating many issues associated with the limited maintenance of the rolling stock that has been revealing strong mechanical wear, affecting their operability. Fatigue problems have often occurred in suspension components from rolling stock, more properly in leaf springs. These occurrences have been generating derailments that in addition to economic losses, threaten human life. The leaves are subject to high and dynamic loads during their operational life and therefore a previous approach using procedures such as rainflow is necessary. Using the rainflow procedure, it was possible to identify the loading levels in terms of displacement and in terms of stress in the leaves. It was found that the distribution of the alternating component tends towards a Gaussian distribution.