Causes and failure forms of railway wheels

Abstract

Railway wheels are a crucial part of the system, which provide necessary traction on railway tracks by carrying cyclic loads. Therefore, it is important to understand the various failure mechanisms of railway wheel sets and the causes to prevent the failure for safety issues. All various railway wheel failures such as crack and rim, crack at rim and disc interface, circumferential chipping-off, wheel tread shelling, thermal crack on wheel tread, wheel tread wear, fatigue, creep, wheel gauge widening, and wheel gauge condemning and their corresponding causes also discussed in this manuscript. Further, it gives detailed wheel failure scenarios in tread and disc braking of locomotive, wagon, and coach wheels. The in-depth details of various wheel failure sceneries observed and analyzed from the field, and case studies are also reviewed in detail.