DIN EN 13103-1:2018-03

Railway axles were among the first train components to give rise to fatigue problems. Many years ago, specific methods were developed in order to design these axles. They were based on a feedback process from the service behaviour of axles combined with the examination of failures and on fatigue tests conducted in the laboratory, so as to characterize and optimize the design and materials used for axles. The method for this standard is based on the calculation of nominal stresses using beam theory. It was developed at a time when the calculation method per finished item had yet to be established. Fatigue limit values were obtained from tests, and the level of stress on the test pieces was calculated using beam theory. In addition, fatigue correlation coefficients were determined in the same way, using the experimental results from test pieces of different diameters and transition radii. The following three elements: - calculation method; - correction coefficient values; - fatigue limit values; are closely linked, with the values of the two latter parameters being dependent on the calculation method. This standard is based largely on this method which has been improved and its scope enlarged. In order to simplify the maintenance of axle design standardization, it was decided to merge two previous documents EN 13103 and EN 13104 into a single standard, in the form of this document. Furthermore, this standard makes reference to mass standard EN 15663 to define the loads used in the calculations.