Abstract: Experiments and probabilistic characterization are performed on the probabilistic fatigue lives and strengths of rim and web materials of D1 railway wheel steel. A maximum likelihood method by Zhao-Yang is applied to treat the durability test data of fatigue up-and-down method, probabilistic fatigue limits of wheel rim and web materials are well characterized on a statistical sense. The probabilistic concurrent principle and method between life distribution in the mid-short life regime and strengths distribution corresponding to the durability by Zhao et al are applied to analyze the test S-N data combining the fatigue limits, the probabilistic fatigue S-N curves are appropriately determined for the wheel rim and web material. A comparing analysis is taken to the wheel materials of code EN 13262 and R7T wheel steel, results reveal that D1 steel holds a higher composition on the chemical elements Si and Cu, a lower composition on the elements Mn, V, Cr, Mo, Ni, S and P; and a better fatigue capacity than the R7T wheel steel.

Key words: railway;wheel;D1 steel;fatigue life;fatigue strength