A study of airborne wear particles generated from the train traffic—Block braking simulation in a pin-on-disc machine

Recently, much attention has been given to the influence of airborne particles in the atmosphere on human health. Sliding contacts are a significant source of airborne particles. In this study airborne particles from railway block brakes are studied using cast iron and composite block material on railway wheel steel. A pin-on-disc tribometer equipped with airborne particle counting instrumentation was used as experimental set-up. The result shows differences for the two tested block brake material combinations in particle size distribution, morphology and elemental content.

Research highlights▶ A novel method is presented in which airborne particles generated from a sliding contact can be characterized by their size and number distributions. ▶ Also the morphology and the composition of the particles can be studied by collecting wear particles on filters for geometry and material analysis.