Damage tolerance of railway axles - the issue of transferability revisited

From a brief overview of existing literature as well as preliminary results obtained in a current research project, some issues of special interest regarding the transferability of crack growth predictions from tests on small-scale laboratory specimens to full-scale component tests are identified; these are: batch variability and scatter of material parameters, residual stresses after manufacturing, heat treatment and machining, specimen geometry and load sequence effects, crack closure effects including the influence of starter notches. A route for further investigations is outlined.