Influence of axle-wheel interface on ultrasonic testing of fatigue cracks in wheelset.

For the ultrasonic testing at the wheel seat of railway axles, quantitative investigation of the reflection and transmission phenomena at the axle-wheel interface is important. This paper describes the influence of the axle-wheel interface on the ultrasonic testing of a fatigue crack in a wheelset by applying the spring interface model. The normal and tangential stiffnesses were identified experimentally for an as-manufactured wheelset at the normal incidence, and the reflection coefficient for the shear-wave oblique incidence was calculated.