LAUSR

Abstract Rolling contact fatigue cracks in rails undergo non-proportional mixed-mode I + II + III, in variable proportions along their front. In order to determine the crack growth thresholds and kinetics in mixed-mode II/III, asymmetric four point bending tests are run on a rail steel with different angles between the crack front and the shearing load, so as to vary the mode mixity ratio. For sufficiently high loading ranges, these tests give rise to coplanar shear-mode crack growth. The effective stress intensity factors (SIFs) are derived by an inverse method from the measured crack face relative displacements. It appears to be 10–70% lower than the nominal SIFs and to allow a reasonable correlation of the measured crack growth rates. The local application, ahead of the crack front, of shear-driven or tension-driven fatigue damage models – after 3D elastic-plastic computations of local stress and strain ranges – allows a successful prediction of crack fronts paths and growth rates.