Zbornik radova Koridor 10 - Kirilo Savić

3rd International Scientific and Professional Conference
CORRIDOR 10 - a sustainable way of integrations
1. INTRODUCTION
The rail rolling contact fatigue (RCF) phenomenon threatens the traffic safety and increases the cost
of rails maintenance across the world. This serious problem can lead to expensive rail grinding,
premature removal of rails and complete rail failure. Experience indicates that the standard life cycle of
rails can be reduced to only 2-3 years due to RCF, if the adequate effective maintenance is not taken
at the time [1, 2].
The major occurrence of the RCF rail defects are: "head checkings" (HC) and "squats", as well as
"belgrospi". Unfortunately, all three types of RCF defects can be observed on the Serbian Railways
and the Railways of Montenegro. Nevertheless, the Serbian Railways and the Railways of Montenegro
have no management strategy against RCF rail defects and technical regulations for the infrastructure
maintenance do not include the aforementioned rail defects.
The Railways of Serbia and the Montenegro railways are part of the European railway network. Two
European traffic corridors pass through the Republic of Serbia: The Danube waterway Corridor VII and
the road-railway Corridor X, as well as three European routes: the Route 4, the Route 10 and the
Route 11 (Figure 1). Also, the Route 4 and the Route 2 pass through the Republic of Montenegro
(Figure 1).
FIGURE 1. European corridors and routes in the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of
Montenegro [3]
Realization of interoperability of European railway system demands for infrastructure managers in
Serbia and Montenegro to have maintenance plans for the infrastructure subsystem for each
conventional railway line [4]. Also, this plan should include inspection and strategy against head
checking. Maintenance strategy should provide extension of rail service life, reduce in overall rail
maintenance costs and improve safety of railway traffic. This paper figures out the importance of
grinding strategy against head checking rail defect. It also points on necessity of preventive activities
(such as rail care), removal of more or less severe defects (corrective activities) and cyclical
(controlled) activities during the rail service life. Every infrastructure manager needs to adjust
maintenance strategy to local conditions in order to achieve improvement in traffic safety.
2. DEFECTS DUE TO ROLLING CONTACT FATIGUE
The term rolling contact fatigue is generic in nature and used to describe a range of defects that are
due, basically, to the development of excessive shear stresses at the wheel/rail contact interface.
Rolling contact fatigue is a process of gradual destruction due to the creation and development of an
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