Study of rolling contact fatigue, rolling and sliding wear of class B wheel steels against R350HT and R260 rail steels under dry contact conditions using the twin disc setup

Abstract

There is an increased demand for railway services, which has resulted in an increase in speeds and axle loads. The increase in axle loads and speeds have resulted in an increase in severity of wheel and rail wear. The aim of this work was to investigate wear and rolling contact fatigue (RCF) performance of class B wheels against R350HT and R260 rail under different slip ratio using a twin-disc setup. The results showed that severity of wear was heavily dependent on slip ratio. It was found that class B wheels’ wear rate was better against R260 rail than against R350HT rail. Three wear regimes were identified from plots of wear rate versus wear index (Tγ/A) being mild, severe and catastrophic.