Investigation between rolling contact fatigue and wear of high speed and heavy haul railway

Abstract

Rolling contact fatigue and wear are inevitable problems for the infrastructure of modern railways. The rolling tests of railway rails were performed using a JD-1 wheel/rail simulation facility without any lubricant. The failure behaviour of rail rollers with different materials, axle loads and curve radius was investigated in detail by examining wear volume and wear scar using optical microscopy and SEM. The results indicate that the crack propagation is more significant, and fatigue damage is more severe at high speeds. However, the wear volume of rail rollers becomes large in heavy haul railways. The results show that there is a mutual competitive relationship between wear and surface fatigue cracks. A high wear rate can reduce rolling contact fatigue damage by removing constantly surface cracks.