High-performance Wheels Research Articles

Properties and microstructure of high performance wheels

The methodology followed by Transportation Technology Center, Inc., to develop a pearlitic high performance wheel steel (identified as SRI) is described in the first part of this paper. Ideally, this steel will be proposed as high performance wheel steel to the Association of American Railroads (AAR). If successful, the SRI steel will be identified as AAR Class D steel. The second part of the paper provides the results of the mechanical testing of seven high performance wheels (six pearlitic and one bainitic) manufactured by different companies and are compared to the SRI steel. Some of these high performance wheel steels had been tested in heavy haul lines, but had not been tested in the USA heavy haul environment. The results in this paper indicate that the mechanical properties of the SRI steel are superior to those of AAR Class C steel. Vacuum degassing can significantly improve fatigue resistance and is recommended for the SRI steel. The experimental SRI wheels were forged in Brasil at the MWL Brasil facilities. The cleanliness and mechanical properties of the SRI wheel steels compared to the other high performance wheel steels show that among the pearlitic steels, the SRI steel has the highest cleanliness and mechanical properties.

Development and Evaluation of Advanced Wheel Steels to Prevent Wheel Failures in the North American Heavy Haul Operating Environment

This paper presents the results of metallurgical analysis and mechanical and residual stress tests for high performance wheels that are currently under test under 35-metric ton (39 ton) load axles. For this test, eight high performance wheels were tested from various suppliers including an experimental wheel developed by the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) under the Association of American Railroads' Strategic Research Initiatives Programme. All high performance wheels are currently under an accelerated heavy haul test at the TTCI.

Reducing labor costs and improving finished product quality via ultrasonic cleaning: From high-performance wheels to fine silver buckles, Omegasonics' cleaning system helps customers achieve consistent, cost-effective results

Reducing labor costs and improving finished product quality via ultrasonic cleaning: From high-performance wheels to fine silver buckles, Omegasonics' cleaning system helps customers achieve consistent, cost-effective results

Development of High Performance Wheels for Chemo-Mechanical-Grinding

Development of High Performance Wheels for Chemo-Mechanical-Grinding

Stress evaluation of automotive steel road wheel under radial load.

In order to develop a new high-performance wheel with high fatigue strength and light weight, a rigorous quantitative method for evaluating the induced stress of the wheel is necessary. In this study, a stress evaluation technique with three-dimensional finite element method is developed for an automotive steel road wheel during radial load fatigue test. The method of the determination of the load distribution loaded on the rim is proposed, by referring the stress measure with strain gage on the rim. According to the present method, the calculated results with a half model simulates well the actual stress distribution. The variation of the stress amplitude during a rotation of the wheel is obtained from the calculation, and the characteristic stress variation of the wheel, for example the three stress cycles at the rim per rotation, becomes clear. Also, the effect of the basic design parameters such as disc hat radius and rim thickness on the stress amplitude numerically.