Rolling Contact Fatigue and Wear Behavior of High-Performance Railway Wheel Steels Under Various Rolling-Sliding Contact Conditions

Rolling contact fatigue and wear of rails are inevitable problems for railway system due to wheel and rail contact. Increased rail wear and increased fatigue damage such as shelling, head check, etc. require more frequent rail exchanges and more maintenance cost. The fatigue crack growth and wear forming on the contact surface are affected by a variety of parameters, such as vertical and traction load, friction coefficient on the surface. Also, wear and crack growth are not independent, but interact on each other. Surface cracks are removed by wear, which can be beneficial for rail, however too much wear shortens the life of rail. Therfore, it is important to understand contact fatigue and wear mechanism in rail steels according to a variety of parameters. In this study, we have investigated fatigue and wear characteriscs of rail steel using twin disc testing. Also the comparative wear behavior of KS60 and UIC 60 rail steel under dry rolling-sliding contact was performed.

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Effect of desert sand on wear and rolling contact fatigue behaviour of various railway wheel steels

Wear ◽

10.1016/j.wear.2017.05.012 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 396-397 ◽

pp. 146-161 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Michela Faccoli ◽

Candida Petrogalli ◽

Matteo Lancini ◽

Andrea Ghidini ◽

Angelo Mazzù

Keyword(s):

Rolling Contact Fatigue ◽

Contact Fatigue ◽

Fatigue Behaviour ◽

Rolling Contact ◽

Railway Wheel ◽

Desert Sand ◽

Railway Wheel Steels

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Effect of Gas Nitriding on Interface Adhesion and Surface Damage of CL60 Railway Wheels under Rolling Contact Conditions

Metals ◽

10.3390/met10070911 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (7) ◽

pp. 911

Author(s):

Qiang Wu ◽

Tao Qin ◽

Mingxue Shen ◽

Kangjie Rong ◽

Guangyao Xiong ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Wear Behavior ◽

Rolling Contact Fatigue ◽

Contact Fatigue ◽

Rolling Contact ◽

Wheel Surface ◽

Fatigue Wear ◽

Material Loss ◽

Surface Protection ◽

Gas Nitriding ◽

Railway Wheels

The influence of surface gas nitriding on wheel/rail rolling contact fatigue and wear behavior of CL60 wheel was studied on a new rolling contact fatigue/wear tester (JD-DRCF/M). The failure mechanisms of the wheel/rail surface after the gas nitriding and without gas nitriding on the wheel surface were compared and analyzed. The results show that the wheel with gas nitriding could form a dense and hard white bright layer which was approximately 25 μm thick and a diffusion layer which was approximately 70 μm thick on the wheel surface. Thus, the gas nitriding on the railway wheel not only significantly improved the wear resistance on the surface of the wheel, but also effectively reduced the wear of the rail; the results show that the material loss reduced by 58.05% and 10.77%, respectively. After the wheel surface was subjected to gas nitriding, the adhesive coefficient between the wheel/rail was reduced by 11.7% in dry conditions, and was reduced by 18.4% in water media, but even so, the wheel with gas nitriding still could keep a satisfactory adhesive coefficient between the wheel/rail systems, which can prevent the occurrence of phenomena such as wheel-slip. In short, the gas nitriding on the wheel surface can effectively reduce the wear, and improve the rolling contact fatigue resistance of the wheel/rail system. This study enlarges the application field of gas nitriding and provides a new method for the surface protection of railway wheels in heavy-duty transportation.

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