Quantification of sub-surface railhead material damage due to composite endpost materials of insulated rail joints for cyclic wheel loadings

This study focusses on a 3D finite element analysis to investigate damage of sub-surface railhead material at insulated rail joints (IRJs) considering different composite endpost materials (fibreglass, nylon 66 and polytetrafluoroethylene). At the wheel/rail contact patch on IRJs, vertical wheel impacts up to a total of 2000 cycles are applied. Damage parameters exhibit a vertical flat type damage pattern for a depth up to 8 mm initially and, as the cyclic loading increases, the flat damage pattern changes to a horizontal bell-shape pattern. The results indicate that fibreglass is a better endpost material to control sub-surface railhead material damage.