Application of the semi-Hertzian method to the prediction of wheel wear in heavy haul freight car

In order to simulate the wheel wear behaviour of freight cars, the rail vehicle's multi-body dynamical model and wheel wear simulation programme were combined as a wheel wear simulation tool in this paper. Multi-body dynamical models of China's heavy haul freight cars such as the C80, C80H, C70 and C70H, were built in SIMPACK software and the track system was built based on the China's Ring-line. For the wheel/rail rolling contact, the semi-Hertzian method and FASTSIM algorithm were applied to solve the normal and tangential problem respectively. The shapes of worn wheel profiles in the simulation agree well with the field measurements, but wear rates from the simulation are larger than those found in field measurements. This discrepancy is contributed to two factors. The first factor is the wheel material. The CL60 wheel steel used in China's freight car, is harder than the BS11 wheel steel used in Zobory's wheel/rail wear experiments. The second factor is the impact of a material's elastic shear deformation on the slip velocity in contact patch. This impact will increase the wear rate and was considered in the present wear simulation.