Failure Analysis of Railway Wheel Tread

The majority of catastrophic wheel failures are caused by surface opening fatigue cracks either in the wheel tread or wheel flange areas. The inclined cracks at railway wheel tread are initiated and the cracks are caused by wheel damage-spalling after 60,000 km running. Because the failured railway wheel is reprofiled before regular wheel reprofiling, the maintenance cost for the railway wheel is increased. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the mechanism for introduction of crack. In the present paper, the combined effect on railway wheels of a periodically varying contact pressure and an intermittent thermal braking loading is investigated. To analyze damage cause for railway wheels, the measurements for replica of wheel surface and effect of braking application in field test are carried out. The result shows that the surface cracks in railway wheel tread are due to combination of thermal loading and ratcheting.

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Assessment of Thermal Damage for Railway Wheel of Long-Term Running

Key Engineering Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/kem.488-489.194 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 488-489 ◽

pp. 194-197

Author(s):

Seok Jin Kwon ◽

Jung Won Seo ◽

Dong Hyung Lee ◽

Sung Tae Kwon

Keyword(s):

Residual Stress ◽

Evaluation Method ◽

Ride Comfort ◽

Maintenance Cost ◽

Railway Vehicle ◽

X Ray Diffraction ◽

Railway Wheel ◽

Brake Application ◽

Railway Wheels

The railway wheel in long-term running had experienced the wheel damage due to fatigue crack and shelling. The damaged wheel in railway vehicle would cause a poor ride comfort, a rise in the maintenance cost and even fracture of the wheel, which then leads to a tremendous social and economical cost. It is necessary to evaluate long-term damage of railway wheel in order to ensure the safety of wheel. To evaluate the damage for railway wheels, the measurements for the replication of wheel surface and residual stress of railway wheel using x-ray diffraction system were carried out. The result shows that the residual stress of wheel is depend on the running distance and thermal gradient during brake application also that the replication test can be applied in new evaluation method of wheel damage.

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The Influence of Tread Hollowing of the Railway Wheels on the Hunting of a Coach

Volume 11: New Developments in Simulation Methods and Software for Engineering Applications; Safety Engineering, Risk Analysis and Reliability Methods; Transportation Systems ◽

10.1115/imece2010-37832 ◽

2010 ◽

Author(s):

H. Tavakkoli ◽

R. Ghajar ◽

J. Alizadeh K.

Keyword(s):

Dynamic Behavior ◽

Plastic Flow ◽

Lateral Displacement ◽

Main Topic ◽

Surface Material ◽

Wheel Surface ◽

Modeling And Analysis ◽

Railway Wheel ◽

Railway Wheels

A railway wheel has subjected to millions of intense wheel-rail contact cycles in its lifetime. Due to these severe contacts, wheel surface has worn gradually to a hollow shape. Also, tread hollowing rarely has occurred by plastic flow of surface material. Tread hollowing major consequences are false flange and different rolling radius of the wheels on a wheelset. False flange queers vehicle steerage and rolling radius differences can advance vehicle instability. This paper investigates the effect of tread hollowing, in the form of false flange and rolling radius difference, on the dynamic behavior of a railway coach. Modeling and analysis of the coach equipped by hollow wheels is performed using Adams Rail software. This study is conducted following on the problem appeared after operation of the newly purchased passenger coaches by the Iranian railways. So, the main topic which is focused on is the lateral displacement of the coach. Finally, results are reported and compared to achieve a proper criterion for tread hollowing.

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Characteristics of Wheel Tread for Property Improvement of Railway Wheel

Key Engineering Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/kem.326-328.1075 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 326-328 ◽

pp. 1075-1078

Author(s):

Seok Jin Kwon ◽

Jung Won Seo ◽

Hyun Mu Hur ◽

Sung Tae Kwon

Keyword(s):

Fracture Toughness ◽

Low Temperature ◽

Impact Energy ◽

Low Cycle Fatigue ◽

Maintenance Cost ◽

Railway Vehicle ◽

Cycle Fatigue ◽

Railway Wheel ◽

Mechanics Characteristics ◽

Wheel Material

Despite of improvement of wheel material for railway vehicle, the damages of railway wheel have been occurred in service running. Because of wheel damage with spalling, shelling and thermal crack, the maintenance cost for the railway wheel has increased. The railway wheel had standardized but the chemical composition, the mechanical property and the hardness with respect to railway wheel is merely established. In order to reduce wheel damage, it is necessary to reinforce the standard of railway wheel. In present study, the fracture mechanics characteristics of railway wheel such as low cycle fatigue, fracture toughness, impact energy depended on low temperature and so on have tested. The result shows that the standard of railway wheel has to supplement fracture toughness and impact energy depended on low temperature etc.

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Fatigue cracks in railway bridge hangers due to wind induced vibrations – Failure analysis, measures and remaining service life estimation

Engineering Failure Analysis ◽

10.1016/j.engfailanal.2014.02.019 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 43 ◽

pp. 232-252 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

C. Klinger ◽

Th. Michael ◽

D. Bettge

Keyword(s):

Service Life ◽

Failure Analysis ◽

Fatigue Cracks ◽

Railway Bridge ◽

Life Estimation ◽

Remaining Service Life ◽

Service Life Estimation

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A Method for the Analysis of the Growth of Short Fatigue Cracks

Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology ◽

10.1115/1.2804734 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 117 (4) ◽

pp. 408-411 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

A. J. McEvily ◽

Y.-S. Shin

Keyword(s):

Experimental Data ◽

Fatigue Crack ◽

Fatigue Crack Growth ◽

Crack Growth ◽

Fatigue Cracks ◽

Material Constant ◽

Plastic Zone Size ◽

Surface Cracks ◽

Zone Size ◽

Short Cracks

A method for the analysis of the fatigue crack growth rate for short cracks has been developed and is applied to the case of fatigue crack growth of short surface cracks in a 1045 carbon steel. The method entails three modifications to standard LEFM procedures. These modifications include the use of a material constant to bridge between smooth and cracked specimen behavior, consideration of the plastic zone size to crack length ratio, and incorporation of the development of crack closure. Comparisons are made between calculations based upon this approach and experimental data.

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Failure Analysis of Railway Wheel Tread

Advanced Nondestructive Evaluation I - Key Engineering Materials ◽

10.4028/0-87849-412-x.649 ◽

2006 ◽

pp. 649-653

Author(s):

Seok Jin Kwon ◽

Dong Hyung Lee ◽

Sung Tae Kwon ◽

Byeong Chun Goo

Keyword(s):

Failure Analysis ◽

Railway Wheel

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Improving the performance parameters of railway wheels with the help of optimal design technologies of their electric pulse processing

MATEC Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/matecconf/201929405004 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 294 ◽

pp. 05004

Author(s):

Igor Vakulenko ◽

Nickolay Kuzin ◽

Leonid Vakulenko ◽

Sergey Raksha ◽

Svetlana Proidak

Keyword(s):

Electric Current ◽

Electric Pulse ◽

Cold Deformation ◽

Metal Structure ◽

Performance Parameters ◽

Railway Wheel ◽

Average Temperature ◽

Pulse Processing ◽

Rolling Surface ◽

Railway Wheels

The processing by pulses of electric current (PEC) of a fragment of the rim of a railway wheel was carried out on the DS10D equipment. When the density of the electric current is from 3 to 17 A/mm2, the processing cycle consisted of the action of a pulse with a duration of 2.5-3 s and a pause between pulses of 4 s. After 150 cycles of PEC, the hardness of cold-formed metal was reduced from 10 to 20%. Studies of the parameters of the metal structure of the wheels have determined that the processing of PEC leads to a decrease in the number of defects in the internal structure, which are accumulated as a result of cold deformation of the rim along the rolling surface of the railway wheel. It has been established that, according to the nature of the influence on the hardness distribution of carbon steel, the PEC treatment corresponds to changes during tempering in the average temperature range and allows to significantly increase the operating parameters of the wheels of railway equipment.

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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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Study on Wear and Fatigue Performance of Two Types of High-Speed Railway Wheel Materials at Different Ambient Temperatures

Materials ◽

10.3390/ma13051152 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 1152

Author(s):

Lei MA ◽

Wenjian WANG ◽

Jun GUO ◽

Qiyue LIU

Keyword(s):

High Temperature ◽

Low Temperature ◽

High Speed ◽

Room Temperature ◽

Lamellar Spacing ◽

Wear Loss ◽

High Speed Railway ◽

Railway Wheel ◽

Ambient Temperatures ◽

Railway Wheels

The wear and fatigue behaviors of two newly developed types of high-speed railway wheel materials (named D1 and D2) were studied using the WR-1 wheel/rail rolling–sliding wear simulation device at high temperature (50 °C), room temperature (20 °C), and low temperature (−30 °C). The results showed that wear loss, surface hardening, and fatigue damage of the wheel and rail materials at high temperature (50 °C) and low temperature (−30 °C) were greater than at room temperature, showing the highest values at low temperature. With high Si and V content refining the pearlite lamellar spacing, D2 presented better resistance to wear and fatigue than D1. Generally, D2 wheel material appears more suitable for high-speed railway wheels.

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