Summary

The worlds deadliest train wreck has been attributed to a fatigue crack in one of the train cars wheels
and ultimately leads to derailment. It has been called Eschede train disaster and took place June 3, 1988
in Eschede, Germany. Approximately 101 people were killed and 88 people injured in this horrific event.
It was reported that a steel wheel on the first railcar broke and portions of the wheel punctured the car
floor and remain embedded. It is unclear if there were any warning signs prior to the wheels failure,
however, passengers and the conductor noticed vibrations soon after and within minutes the chain
reaction of derailment events occurred.

Description
The original design of the train wheel consisted of what is known as monobloc design. A monobloc is a
single cast wheel much like what is seen on railcars today. The downside of this wheel is that loud
vibrations caused discomfort for passengers. The noise level of the vibrations as well as the movement it
caused in the dining cars, for example, glassware walking off the table proved to be an issue.
Management instructed engineers to develop a solution to this problem and they came up with a new
design called the wheel-tire or resilient wheel. It consisted of the same single cast wheel but added 20
millimeters of rubber around it to act as a damper around the wheel body. This seemed to solve the
problem however, testing only consisted of data at cruising speeds.
Fatigue occurs when a material is subjected to repeat loading and unloading. Any solid material can be
tested for fatigue. Stress analysis allows engineers to determine the stress in materials and structures
subjected to static or dynamic forces or loads.
It was soon apparent that dynamic repetitive forces had not been accounted for in the statistical
failure modeling done during the design phase, and the resulting design lacked an adequate margin of
safety. The following factors, overlooked during design, were noted:
1. The tires were flattened into an ellipse as the wheel turned through each revolution
(approximately 500,000 times during a typical day in service on an ICE train), with
corresponding fatigue effects.
2. In contrast to the monoblock wheel design, cracks could also form on the inside of the tire.
3. As the tire became thinner due to wear, the dynamic forces were exaggerated, resulting in crack
growth.
4. Flat spots and ridges or swells in the tire dramatically increased the dynamic forces on the
assembly and greatly accelerated wear.
The maintenance department had reported that the procedure for examination include only the use of
standard flashlights to visually inspect the wheels for potential problems instead of using metal fatigue
detection equipment. Previously, the use of more technical equipment was thought to have shown false
positives and was discarded as a reliable test.

Engineering solution

Detection of material failure needs to be more than just visual inspection with flashlights. By the time a
visible failure is present the material has already been compromised and there really wasnt any
preventative action prior to the obvious. A new found way to predict material fatigue has been revealed
in the study of using polymer composites as a filler material.
It is difficult to detect the failure of a material inside, such as stress cracks, by looking at the outside of
the material. There may be no evidence visible to indicate any problem. The use of luminescent zinc
oxide tetrapod fillers make inner damages visible by using ultraviolet light. When the material is looked
at under UV light, there are obvious changes in color to the composite filler based on stress level
exposure. The result is clear indication that a failure prediction can be made based on this new internal
visual indicator.
"The luminescent features of zinc oxide tetrapod crystals are well established. According to our
work hypothesis, these characteristics showed pronounced variations under a mechanical load, and we
realised that it could help to detect internal damages of composite materials," says Dr. Yogendra Mishra
of Kiel University's Technical Faculty. In one experiment, the scientists added zinc oxide tetrapod shaped
crystals to a silicone (polydimethylsiloxane) polymer and tested its general properties. They found that
the resulting composite material is on the one hand stronger than silicon and on the other hand emits
light in different colours when exposed to UV light. When the material is subjected to mechanical stress
and ultraviolet light, the intensities of the emitted lights and thus the colour changes. "The micro-nano
sized crystals give a visual warning when the composite material is about to fail under stress," explains
PhD student Xin Jin. The alteration of the luminescent characteristics of defined semiconductor
microstructures under load -- as we could show for zinc oxide tetrapods -- might be also interesting for
many other phosphor material systems. We expect further developments in this emerging field on 'self-
reporting materials'," explains Professor Cordt Zollfranck of TUM.


Selection of material:

Guidelines for the selection of materials are based on primarily strength. Freight car wheels have the
toughest job among all the components of a freight car. The wheel must support the weight of the car
and steer it on the rails as well as bear the weight of the car itself and the load it is carrying. The wheel
must withstand constant abuse from stresses caused by such factors as braking friction and heavy
loading. This leads to thermal pressure not only from braking but from friction of the wheel riding on the
track. The two surfaces are constantly heating and cooling which over time will eventually result in
stress cracks in the wheel. Steel is the primary material used and is generally cast. Manufacturing takes
place by forming a solid block of metal and then a series of machines press the steel into shape with
immense pressure. This process is known as forging. The forging process is able to produce products
that are stronger in comparison to a cast product. The deformation due to compressive force improves
the strength uniformly throughout the entire structure of the wheel.





Detection of material failure is a difficult process and needs to be improved. Like any preventative
process, the earlier a potential problem is identified the better the chances of preventing disasters.
Processes for material selection, testing, quality control, and preventative maintenance are all steps that
need to be addressed by engineers that develop the design and failure analysis.