Functional Failure Analysis of A Pandrol Clip

Pandrol clips keep sufficient continuous toe-load on the rail, under static and dynamic conditions for which uplift of the rail under percussion wave is kept to the minimum. This work attempts to study the response and functional failure of the clips under wheel loads with the complete stress analysis and its behaviour under various load conditions. The load due to moving train wheels is a periodic load with varying frequency and amplitude. Modal analysis is performed at various mode shapes and thus natural frequencies of the clip are determined at various modes of vibrations and corresponding mode shapes with deflections are notified. Further to analyse the steady state response of the clip under periodic load varying with time, harmonic analysis has been performed. Both the operations were performed using FEM techniques and ANSYS software. The outcome of both the analyses shows that the frequencies of loading at all the possible speeds of the trains on the railway track is below the first natural frequency and results in the deflections within the tolerable limits inducing the stresses to the tune of 14457N/.mm². Further the results of harmonic analysis are in agreement with the functional failure of the clip which confirms the boundary conditions that are assumed during the formulation of the problem are correct.