Abstract
Heavy haul railway track infrastructure are commonly equipped with balloon loops to allow trains to be loaded/unloaded and/or to reverse the direction of travel. The slow operational speed of trains on these sharp curves results in some unique issues regarding the wear process between wheels and rails. A wagon dynamic system model has been applied to simulate the dynamic behaviour in order to study the wheel–rail contact wear conditions. A wheel–rail wear index is used to assess the wear severity. The simulation shows that the lubrication to reduce the wheel–rail contact friction coefficient can significantly reduce the wear severity. Furthermore, the effects of important parameters on wheel–rail contact wear including curve radius, wagon speed and track superelevation have also been considered.
Highlights
Balloon loops are quite common in Australian heavy haul railway networks, which are equipped to allow heavy haul trains (Spiryagin et al 2016) to be loaded/ unloaded and to reverse the direction of travel without having to shunt or stop the train
The issues regarding the wear between wheel and rail and the Rolling Contact Fatigue (RCF) damage on wheel and rail surfaces have been a concern with the rail operators
The most common maintenance strategies to manage the rail-wheel contact on curved tracks are through lubrication and Rail Grinding (RG) (Spiryagin et al 2014)
Summary
Balloon loops are quite common in Australian heavy haul railway networks, which are equipped to allow heavy haul trains (Spiryagin et al 2016) to be loaded/ unloaded and to reverse the direction of travel without having to shunt or stop the train. The increasing competition driven by international markets have forced Australian heavy haul industries to operate with greater axle loads and longer trains than originally designed, but the corresponding track systems, especially rails, have not been upgraded, and an equivalent increase in maintenance effort has not occurred. These additional demands on the track can accelerate the deterioration of rails. The most common maintenance strategies to manage the rail-wheel contact on curved tracks are through lubrication and Rail Grinding (RG) (Spiryagin et al 2014)
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