2011 Mark Dobrovits
Wheel – Rail Interface Award 2011
THESIS: A STUDY INTO THE OCCURRENCE OF SUBSURFACE ROLLING CONTACT FATIGUE CRACKS IN THE WHEELS OF RAILCORPS OUTER SUBURBAN CAR FLEET.
Place of Study: University of Wollongong.
The thesis describes a static finite element analysis and stress distribution study that was carried out on the wheels of part of the RailCorp Outer Suburban Car (OSCAR) fleet as part of a process designed to address the incidence of some rolling contact fatigue cracks that had initiated below the wheel treads. The results of the study have contributed towards a better understanding of the propagation and behaviour of these rolling contact fatigue cracks and they have assisted in the development of optimised wheel re-profiling activities.
Mark Dobrovits accepting the Wheel-Rail Interface Award from Richard Dwight and Katharina Gerstmann in 2011