Computational modelling of rail manufacturing

Abstract: The thesis deals with simulation of rail manufacturing. During the manufacturing process residual stresses arise in the rail, primarily due to cooling and straightening. These stresses can affect product performance, for example fatigue characteristics. Therefore it would be desirable to be able to predict these in an efficient way. The objective of the present work is to develop and implement a finite element model that can simulate the cooling and straightening of the rail. The thesis consist of two papers and an introductory part. The firsts paper discusses a modification of the plane element formulation needed for the simulation in paper two. In the second paper simulation and measurement of the residual stresses in a rail is described.