Correlations between wear mechanisms and rail grinding operations in a commercial railroad

Rail grinding is a typical maintenance procedure for railways in which an abrasive wheel is used to restore the rail profile while eliminating defects such as corrugation, fatigue cracks and detachment marks. In this work, the grinding procedures performed during 10 years in 22 curves of a commercial railway (Metro de Medellin railway, line B) were studied and classified to understand the most important causes of damage. Periodical inspections were done to identify the main wear mechanisms in the field and the defects were classified into corrugation, fatigue and loss of profile. The results showed that corrugation took place preferentially on the low rail while fatigue was observed preferentially in the high rail.