Triennial Report 2003 - CHARMEC

the broken rail and derailment at Hatfield on the EastCoast Main Line on 17 October 2000 set the frameworkfor this issue.The 72-page volume contains fourteen invited articleson wheel-rail safety with special focus on the rail. Theauthors represent leading research groups in ten countries.There are (i) three review articles, followed byeleven articles on (ii) monitoring, maintenance and nondestructivetesting, (iii) damage, fatigue and fracture ofrails, (iv) phenomena at the wheel-rail interface, and (v)new rail materials. A total of 360 references are quotedin the articles. The Special Issue starts with an Editorialand Introduction by the Guest Editor.Roger Lundén (Guest Editor): Special Issue Fatigue &Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures, vol 26,no 10, 2003, pp 861-1031In our extensive investigations of the fatigue propertiesof the wheel type that failed, we (Roger Lundén andBengt Åkesson) have engaged the services of EpsilonHighTech Engineering for finite element calculations,abb Corporate Research for chemical and corrosionanalyses, and sp Swedish Testing and Research Institutefor full-scale testing of wheels. Several visits to db facilitiesin Germany were made. We were summoned to theconcluding seven week criminal proceedings in January-February 2003 at the Regional Court of Lüneburg (heldin Hannover). We then presented our findings by meansof some 650 summarizing transparencies (data projections)in both English and German versions. In total,evidence had been taken from 93 witnesses and 16 expertssince the lawsuit started on 28 August 2002. Fora brief description of the accident, see Railway GazetteInternational, July 1998, page 449.Eschede expertiseFrontcover ofSpecialIssue ofFFEMSOctober2003Winter problems with wheelsProblems with damage to a large number of wheels onregional trains occurred in Sweden during winter 2001-2002. charmec’s Anders Ekberg, Elena Kabo and RogerLundén have taken part in several meetings in Derby(uk) and Gävle, Stockholm, Surahammar and Västerås(Sweden) to clarify and remedy the situation. The programpackage fierce was applied, see under projectsmu9 and eu6. The report below was compiled to facilitatethe discussions. The problems were solved in themain by means of improved contact geometry (realizedwhen turning the wheels), brake adjustment etc. Newcharmec research aiming at alternative and improvedwheel materials has later been started, see project mu16.Anders Ekberg: Surface cracks in rolling contact – a briefreview with focus on railway wheels, Chalmers AppliedMechanics, Gothenburg 2002, 14 ppOn 3 June 1998, a disastrous accident involving a Germanhigh-speed ice train occurred at Eschede on therailway line between Hannover and Hamburg, with 101people killed and more than 100 seriously injured. Theaccident started with a broken rubber-sprung tyre on awheel of type ba64 resulting in the derailment of severalcoaches and the collision of these with the supports ofa crossing road bridge. Roger Lundén and Bengt Åkessonof charmec were engaged by the train operatorDeutsche Bahn (db) as private consultants and expertsfrom August 1999 until May 2003, when the criminalcase against two employees of db and one employee ofthe wheel manufacturer was concluded.ERWATen wheelset manufacturers from eight European countries,including Lucchini Sweden, are members of theEuropean Railway Wheels Association (erwa). Theobjective of erwa is to contribute to “improvements inwheels and wheelsets by focusing on safety, reliabilityand economic efficiency”. Among the association’s activitieswill be “the definition, adaptation and implementationof advanced technology”. erwa was launched during73