Permissible Lateral Force and Fatigue Life for Rail Fastening System

Abstract

It is important for the design and verification of rail fastening system performance to clarify the permissible lateral force it can tolerate. This study proposes a method for predicting the fatigue life of rail clips. The validity of the method was confirmed on the basis of the relationship between the applied loads and stress on the rail clip, established in laboratory tests. The fatigue life of the rail clip was then estimated using the proposed method and the permissible lateral force for a conventional fastening system was derived using this estimation.