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6th International Conference on Contact Mechanics and Wear of Rail/Wheel Systems(CM2003) in Gothenburg, Sweden June 10–13, 2003
INTEGRATING DYNAMICS AND WEAR MODELLING TOPREDICT RAILWAY WHEEL PROFILE EVOLUTION
R Lewis
1
, F. Braghin
2
, A.Ward
1
, S. Bruni
2
, R.S. Dwyer-Joyce
1
, K. Bel Knani
3
and P. Bologna
31
The University of Sheffield,Dept. of Mech. Eng.,Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD,UK
2
Dept. of Mech. Eng.,Politecnico di Milano,Via La Masa 34,20158, Milano,ITALY
3
Fiat Research Centre,Strada Torino 50,10043, Orbassano (TO),ITALYroger.lewis@sheffield.ac.uk,francesco.braghin@mecc.polimi.it
Abstract
The aim of the work described was to predict wheelprofile evolution by integrating multi-body dynamicssimulations of a wheelset with a wear model.The wear modelling approach is based on a wearindex commonly used in rail wear predictions. Thisassumes wear is proportional to
T 
γ 
, where
T 
is tractiveforce and
γ 
is slip at the wheel/rail interface. Twin disctesting of rail and wheel materials was carried out togenerate wear coefficients for use in the model.The modelling code is interfaced withADAMS/Rail, which produces multi-body dynamicssimulations of a railway wheelset and contact conditionsat the wheel/rail interface. Simplified theory of rollingcontact is used to discretise the contact patchesproduced by ADAMS/Rail and calculate traction andslip within each.The wear model combines the simplified theory of rolling contact, ADAMS/Rail output and the wearcoefficients to predict the wear and hence the change of wheel profile for given track layouts.
INTRODUCTION
New specifications are being imposed on railway wheelwear and reliability to increase the time between wheelreprofiling operations, improve safety and reduce totalwheelset lifecycle costs. In parallel with theserequirements, railway vehicle missions are changingdue to: the need to operate rolling stock on track withlow radius curves as well as the high radius curves onhigh speed lines; increasing speeds and the decrease of track quality due to a reduction in maintenance.These are leading to an increase in the severity of the wheel/rail contact conditions [
1
] which will increasethe likelihood of wear occurring. Excessive wear canaffect the dynamic behaviour of the railway vehicle andreduce ride comfort; impact upon the potential forderailment and reduce the integrity of the wheelmaterial [
 2
].In order to deal with these demands new designmethodologies are required that integrate advancednumerical tools for modelling of railway vehicledynamics and suitable models to predict damagesustained by wheels under typical operating conditions.The aim of the work described was to developsuch a procedure, integrating multi-body dynamicssimulations of a railway wheelset with a wear model topredict wheel profile evolution. This will help inscheduling wheel maintenance and regrinding;optimising railway vehicle suspensions and wheelprofiles and in evaluating new wheel materials.The main drawback in existing analysis tools, thatincorporate dynamic and wear modelling for predictingthe evolution of wheel profiles [
 3
,
 4
,
 5
], is in theapproach to wear modelling used in each. Previouslydeveloped wear models are taken and used with wearcoefficients taken from the literature. No properinvestigations have been conducted to investigate thewheel material wear mechanisms or regimes andvalidate the wear models being used. The aims in thiswork were therefore to assess wear modellingapproaches used for wheel/rail wear prediction andselect the most appropriate for this application and tofully investigate the wear properties of the wheelmaterial and generate suitable data to use in the wearmodel developed.This work was carried out as part of the EuropeanCommunity funded project HIPERWheel. One of theaspects of this project was to develop an integrated CAEprocedure for assessing wheelset durability taking intoaccount damage mechanisms such as metal fatigue,rolling contact fatigue, wear and fretting.
BACKGROUND
Wheel Motion on a Rail
The dynamic behaviour of a rail vehicle running intangent track or curve is strictly related to wearphenomena occurring on wheel profiles. In fact, wheel
White Rose Consortium ePrints Repository: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/archive/00000880/
 
wear occurs as a consequence of the contact conditions(contact forces and slips) induced by the wheelsetservice. Conversely, the modification of wheel surfacesproduced by wear has a large impact on vehicleperformances and running behaviour.Two main wear effects are commonly present inrailway wheels: a change in the transversal profile,sometimes called
regular wear 
, and the formation of periodic wear patterns in circumferential direction,called wheel out-of-roundness or
irregular wear 
.Regular wear, upon which this work focuses, isproduced by slowly varying values of contact forces andslips associated with the longitudinal and lateral motionof the wheelset on the track.Particularly relevant to the formation of regularwear is the wheel motion during curve negotiation. Thewheelset experiences a lateral motion with respect to therail, together with a yaw rotation which leads to theformation of an
angle of attack 
between the local radialdirection of the curve and wheelset axle. The lateralwheel motion leads to a change in the position of wheel-rail contact patch along the profiles and to a variation of the rolling radius; whilst, the presence of a non-zeroangle of attack produces a lateral creepage component.As a consequence of this rather complex wheel-rail contact regime, two distinct wear regions appear onthe wheel profile: one on the flange and the other thetread. Flange wear typically takes place for each bogieon the outer wheel of the leading axle, which issubjected to a high flange force under large longitudinaland lateral creepages, while tread wear occurs on theinner wheel due to creep forces [
6 
]. Wear rates in thesetwo regions depend on a large variety of parametersincluding vehicle type (dimensions, axle loads, vehiclesuspensions), vehicle mission profile (service speed,geometry of the line) and the wheel and rail materials.Appropriate models of the wear phenomena andtheir interaction with vehicle dynamics are thereforeneeded in order to optimise wheelset resistance to wearand to minimise total life cycle costs.
 Mathematical Modelling of Wheel/RailContact 
In order to investigate wear effects at wheel/railinterface, it is necessary to reproduce the variableposition of the contact patch along the profiles, togetherwith the values of longitudinal and lateral creepages andthe corresponding contact force components. Themathematical description of these phenomena is furthercomplicated by the fact that all contact parametersstrongly depend on the geometry of wheel and railprofiles, and that, under some circumstances, multiplecontacts can take place between the same wheel/railpair.The study of wheel/rail contact can be divided intoa
normal problem
, involving the computation of thenumber, position and size of wheel/rail contact patchestogether with the distribution of normal pressures insidethe contact, and a
tangential problem
, consisting of thecalculation of the tangential stresses in each contactpatch [
7 
]. Owing to the
quasi-identity
assumption, thesetwo problems are assumed to be decoupled and solvedseparately.Available methods for solving the normal problemrange from the analytical solution by Hertz to thenumerical procedure implemented in the CONTACTsoftware [
7 
]. This latter method requires a very highcomputational effort, and therefore is not well suited forrepeated applications as is required in the simulation of wear formation processes. A reasonable compromise isrepresented by approximate numerical techniques, likethe method of rigid interpenetration [
8
] or by a multi-elliptic approximation [
 9
]. Several different approachesare available also to solve the tangential problem.Nevertheless, a reasonable compromise betweenaccuracy and numerical efficiency can be achievedusing the FASTSIM procedure [
10
].The CONTACT algorithm has been used in thepast with the output of vehicle dynamics simulations topredict wear and good qualitative agreement noted [
11
].In the work described here, the procedure is improvedby incorporating a faster contact simulation and animproved wear process.
Wheel Wear Phenomena
As mentioned above, wheel wear is related to conditionsof force and slip in the wheel/rail contact. Two wearregimes for wheel materials have been defined [
12
],
mild 
(low force, low slip) and
severe
(high force, highslip). The regimes were described in terms of wearmechanism as well as wear rate.At the very lowest conditions of contact stress andslip typical of those seen in a tread contact (mildregime), a nearly continuous oxide film was observedon the material surfaces. As contact conditions becamemore arduous (towards those experienced in a flangecontact) in severe wear, the material exhibited partiallyoxidised surfaces together with metal flakes. The oxideparticles were less than 2
µ
m across while the metalflakes were 100-200
µ
m across. These elongated metalflakes resulted from cracks running back from thesurface following the flow lines of the deformedmaterial. The severe wear mode generated wear debrisconsisting only of metal flakes up to 50
µ
m thick.
Wheel Wear Modelling Approaches
Most wear indices developed for predicting wear of rails/wheels [
13
,
14
,
15
,
16, 17 
] are either linear orquadratic functions of angle of attack,
θ
, implying thatwear tends to zero as
θ
tends to zero. It has been shown,however, that these indices were not fully valid as wear
 
was apparent in tests run with an attack angle of zero[
18
].A wear index approach has been proposed forpredicting wear of rails that adopts an energy approachin the analysis of the relationship between wear rate andcontact conditions [
19
]. It is assumed that wear rate(
µ
g/m rolled/mm
2
contact area) is related to work doneat the wheel/rail contact (wear rate =
KT 
γ 
/
Α
, where
T 
istractive force and
γ 
is slip at the wheel/rail interface,
K 
is a wear coefficient and
 A
is the contact area). Variousresearchers have reported wheel/rail wear results usingtwin disc test machines of varying geometries as well asfull scale test results that support this approach [
12
,
18
,
 20
,
 21
,
 22
]. This approach, however, has limitations. Itwas found to break down at high slip and contact stressconditions [
12
].The most suitable basis for a wear model wasclearly the wear index based on the proportionality of wear with work done at the wheel/rail contact. It wasapparent, however, that improvements could be made tothis modelling approach, especially with regard to thewear regime at higher slips and contact stresses. Treadand flange wear fall with different wear regimes and itmay therefore be better to use different wear constantsfor each. An improved definition of the wear regimeswas also required.
WEAR TESTING
In order to characterise the wear of the wheel material,wear tests were carried out using a twin disc testmachine. These were designed to establish mechanisms,identify wear regimes of the wheel material anddetermine constants necessary for the wear indexanalysis to be carried out in the modelling proceduredescribed later.
 Apparatus
A twin disc test machine was used to carry out thetesting (shown in
 figure 1
). The original development of this machine and more recent work carried out to add acomputer control system have been describedpreviously [
 23
,
 24
].The test discs are hydraulically loaded togetherand driven at controlled rotational speed by independentelectric motors. Shaft encoders monitor the speedscontinuously. A torque transducer is assembled on oneof the drive shafts and a load cell is mounted beneaththe hydraulic jack. The slip ratio required is achieved byadjustment of the rotational speeds. All data is acquiredon a PC which is also used for load and speed control.
Specimens
Discs to be used during the testing were cut from R8Twheel rims and UIC60 900A rail sections and machinedto a diameter of 47mm with a contact track width of 10mm. Wheel specimens were drawn from the wheelrim parallel and as close as possible to the outer surface.
 Experimental Procedure
Wear tests were carried out using the wheel disc as thedriving disc and rail disc as the braking disc. A nominaldisc rotational speed of 400rpm was used in the tests.An environment chamber enclosed the discs and air-cooling was provided to both. Suction was provided toremove wear debris for analysis. Wear measurementwas determined by mass loss from the discs, measuredbefore and after tests and at intervals during initial teststo determine the number of cycles required to reachsteady state wear. Contact stresses and slip werechanged in order to vary the
T 
γ 
 / 
 A
parameter for thewear index analysis.
 Results
As shown in
 figure 2
, at low values of 
T 
γ 
 / 
 A
, wear rate isproportional to
T 
γ 
 / 
 A
. It can be seen that varying contactpressure to change
T 
γ 
 / 
 A
still gives results that fit on thesame line of proportionality.
Solid DriveShaftFixedBearingTorqueTransducerTest DiscsPivoted DriveShaftPivotedBearingPCMotorMotorControllerHydraulic Pistonand Load CellShaftEncoderShaftEncoderMotor
 figure1Schematic diagram of the twin disc test machine
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