Incorporating a railway wheel wear model into multi-body simulations of wheelset dynamics

A model has been developed to, predict the wear of railway wheels. The wear modelling approach is based on a wear index commonly used in rail wear predictions. This assumes wear is proportional to Tγ , where T is tractive force and γ is slipt at the wheel/rail interface. Twin disc testing of rail and wheel materials was carried out to generate wear coefficients for use in the model. The modelling code is interfaced with ADAMS/Rail, which produces multi-body dynamics simulations of a railway wheelset and contact conditions at the wheel/rail interface. Simplified theory of rolling contact is used to discretise the contact patches produced by ADAMS/Rail and calculate local traction and slip. The wear model combines the simplified theory of rolling contact, ADAMS/Rail output and the wear coefficients to predict the wear and hence the change of wheel profile as the vehicle passes over given track layouts.