Fracture behavior analysis and fatigue assessment of the spring clip in heavy-haul railway

This paper proposes a novel method based on a numerical simulation approach and fatigue fracture theory to analyze the fracture behavior and assess the fatigue life of spring clips. To this end, the finite element (FE) model of the vehicle-track-foundation system was developed including the key parts of the type II fastening system. Meanwhile, the spring clip FE model was validated through the natural vibration characteristics. Subsequently, the numerical simulations were performed under various working conditions to obtain the fatigue characteristics of the spring clips. The fatigue crack initiation life and damage were analyzed using FE results for the spring clips with ε-N curve and Brown-Miller criterion. Moreover, based on the initial crack geometry of the spring clips, the maximum circumferential stress criterion with the Paris equation was employed to analyze the crack extension behavior and assess the fatigue crack extension life.