Wear of brake blocks for in-service conditions—Influence of the level of modelling

Wear of brake blocks at tread braking of railway wheels is one of the key factors that control the time period between scheduled train maintenance and hence has a substantial impact on the life cycle cost of the vehicle. Wear simulations using two different numerical models, one thermal model and one thermoelastic model, are presented implementing wear rates for some brake block materials exploiting results from previously performed temperature-controlled pin-on-disc tests. It is found that the thermal model and the thermoelastic model give the same wear for cases when thermoelastic instability effects are small. However, for cases when the thermoelastic effects increase the local contact pressures and surface temperatures, large differences are found.