To assure the safety of rolling stock, it is important to perform the fatigue analysis of reduction gear unit in rolling stock considering a variation of velocity and traction motor capability. This paper presents fatigue analysis of the damage of reduction gear unit of railway vehicle under variable amplitude loading(VAL) based on quasi-static fatigue analysis using finite element model and linear Miner's rule. The VAL for the simulation was constructed from the tractive effort curve and train

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... run curves of railway vehicle under commercial operation condition using MSC.ADAMS dynamic analysis. The finite element model for evaluating the carburizing effect on the gear surface was used for predicting the fatigue life of the middle gear based on strain-life based approach. The results showed that the frequent high starting torque due to a quick start as well as increasing numbers of stops at station would decrease the fatigue life of reduction gear unit.