-->PONE-D-25-41626-->-->Simulation study of the effect of fasteners on the attenuation of orbital ultrasonic guided waves-->-->PLOS One

Dear Dr. Mingqiang,

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Academic Editor

PLOS One

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Reviewers' comments:

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-->Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. -->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: N/A

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-->3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.-->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)-->

Reviewer #1: Review of Manuscript PONE-D-25-41626

Simulation study of the effect of fasteners on the attenuation of orbital ultrasonic guided waves

The presented manuscript examines the numerical analysis of the attenuation of orbital ultrasonic guided waves caused by fasteners. This topic is of high interest since accurately characterizing the damage state of railway structures is crucial for safe operation. Therefore, the numerical simulation is enhanced by a two-step procedure. First, the fastening preload is applied to the model before the wave propagation is simulated in a second step. The numerical simulations reveal interesting results. However, some major concerns should be addressed before publication:

- Most important is the maximum stress generated during preload application. With values of 3188 MPa and 2098 MPa, this is significantly higher than the ultimate tensile strength of steel. Is a linear simulation in this context valid? Furthermore, it is unclear which stress component is plotted in Figure 7. The unit is missing as well.

- Besides the major concern regarding the simulation approach, only minor points need to be addressed during revision.

- It is unclear to the reviewer why the influence of the different numerical methods is directly analyzed in the region of the fastener. It appears to be useful to analyze the effect in the undisturbed area first.

- The acceleration scale is missing in Figure 11.

- Wrong reference for Equation (4) in line 194.

- A_1 and A_0 in line 197

- No multiplication operator between scalars (Equations 1 and 3)

- a0 in line 163

Reviewer #2: The author did a simulation study to learn how the rail fasteners impact the ultrasonic guided wave attenuation. The conclusions are: 1) fasteners significantly altered the local stress state of the rail. 2)

Fasteners significantly attenuated the guided wave. 3) accuracy of penalty contact calculation decreases with longer distance. My questions are listed below:

1. What do you consider to be the new finding in this paper?

2. Based on your simulation study, what is your recommendation for investigating the propagation of guided waves in rails? With the new, more accurate simulation method, how much did the accuracy improve compared to the traditional approach that simplifies the fasteners as either stiffness or damping.

3. As mentioned in this paper, the accuracy of penalty contact calculations decreases with increasing distance. At what point should people stop using this method? Could you provide a plot showing the error versus distance?

4. Figure 10 is hard to read, could you extend the plot to make it clearer?

5. Please provide colorbar for Figure 11.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Simulation study of the effect of fasteners on the attenuation of orbital ultrasonic guided waves

PONE-D-25-41626R1

Dear Dr. Wang,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Zhipeng Zhao

Academic Editor

PLOS One

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

-->Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.-->

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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-->2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. -->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

-->3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: N/A

**********

-->4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.-->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

-->5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.-->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

-->6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)-->

Reviewer #1: The author has thoroughly revised their manuscript. As a result, inaccuracies have been eliminated and the text is generally more understandable. The author has addressed all of my comments during the revision process, so I support publication.

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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-->7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review?   For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.-->

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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