The role of microstructure and its stability in performance of wheels in heavy haul service

Thermal or thermo-mechanical loading is one of the major causes of wheel surface damage in Australian heavy haul operations.In addition,multi-wear wheels appear to be particularly sensitive to thermo-mechanical damage during their first service life.Such damage can incur heavy machining penalties or even premature scrapping of wheels.The combination of high contact stresses as well as substantial thermal loading(such as during prolonged periods of tread braking) can lead to severe plastic deformation,thermal fatigue and microstructural deterioration.For some high-strength wheel grades,the increased sensitivity to thermo-mechanical damage observed during the first service period may be attributed to the presence of a near-surface region in which the microstructure is more sensitive to these loading conditions than the underlying material.The standards applicable to wheels used in Australian heavy haul operations are based on the Association of American Railroads(AAR) specification M-107/M-208,which does not include any requirements for microstructure.The implementation of acceptance criteria for the microstructure,in particular that in the near-surface region of the wheel,may be necessary when new wheels are purchased.The stability of wheel microstructures during thermo-mechanical loading and the effects of alloying elements commonly used in wheel manufacturing are reviewed.A brief guide to improving thermal/mechanical stability of the microstructure is also provided.

Numerical simulation of wheel wear evolution for heavy haul railway

The prediction of the wheel wear is a fundamental problem in heavy haul railway. A numerical methodology is introduced to simulate the wheel wear evolution of heavy haul freight car. The methodology includes the spatial coupling dynamics of vehicle and track, the three-dimensional rolling contact analysis of wheel-rail, the Specht's material wear model, and the strategy for reproducing the actual operation conditions of railway. The freight vehicle is treated as a full 3D rigid multi-body model. Every component is built detailedly and various contact interactions between parts are accurately simulated, taking into account the real clearances. The wheel-rail rolling contact calculation is carried out based on Hertz's theory and Kalker's FASTSIM algorithm. The track model is built based on field measurements. The material loss due to wear is evaluated according to the Specht's model in which the wear coefficient varies with the wear intensity. In order to exactly reproduce the actual operating conditions of railway,dynamic simulations are performed separately for all possible track conditions and running velocities in each iterative step.Dimensionless weight coefficients are introduced that determine the ratios of different cases and are obtained through site survey. For the wheel profile updating, an adaptive step strategy based on the wear depth is introduced, which can effectively improve the reliability and stability of numerical calculation. At last, the wear evolution laws are studied by the numerical model for different wheels of heavy haul freight vehicle running in curves. The results show that the wear of the front wheelset is more serious than that of the rear wheelset for one bogie, and the difference is more obvious for the outer wheels. The wear of the outer wheels is severer than that of the inner wheels. The wear of outer wheels mainly distributes near the flange and the root; while the wear of inner wheels mainly distributes around the nominal rolling circle. For the outer wheel of front wheelset of each bogie, the development of wear is gradually concentrated on the flange and the developing speed increases continually with the increase of traveled distance.