Fatigue strength evaluation of the Japanese railway wheel.

For the purpose of evaluating the fatigue strength of the Japanese railway wheel, fatigue testing was done on the actual size wheel, using a new resonance-type fatigue-testing machine. Because the maximum stress under the horizontal and vertical loads occurs at the wheel plate, the fatigue strengths of the wheel plate were measured and the safety factors versus design load were evaluated. Two kinds of typical Japanese railway wheel were tested and the results showed that their safety factors were larger than 2.4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]