COMPARISON OF TWO METHODS FOR THE CALCULATION OF RAILWAY WHEEL CIRCUMFERENCE WEAR

The paper develops a model to predict the railway wheel wear. The model combines the coupling dynamics model of rail vehicle and track, the non-Hertzian rolling contact theory of wheel and rail system and a wheel material wear model. Two wear superposition methods, i.e. a simplified method and an improved method, are developed for the accumulated wear calculation of the wheel circumference. The influence of these methods on the evolution of wheel profile due to the wear is analyzed. To obtain the wear of wheel circumference after a cycling, the simplified method uses the calculation of a step rolling contact, while the improved one uses the calculation of a patch rolling contact in the longitudinal direction. Significant differences are observed between the two methods. The wear volume of leading wheelset is significantly increased when the improved method is used. The results obtained by the two methods show larger difference with the increase of running distance and the accumulation of wear.