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Disc machine testing to assess the life of surface-damaged railway track

Disc machine testing to assess the life of surface-damaged railway track
Disc machine testing to assess the life of surface-damaged railway track
Wheel-rail contacts operate in an arduous and contaminated environment. Railway track running surfaces can become damaged either prior to or during operation. This work is aimed at understanding how that surface damage can affect the life of railway track. Pre-damaged surfaces and track damaged by the entrainment of solid contaminants are considered under both oil and water lubrication. A series of small-scale laboratory experiments has been carried out on a twin-disc rolling-sliding test machine. The test discs are artificially indented and run under typical wheel-rail contact conditions. The experimental results revealed that artificial dents only reduce the fatigue life of the contact under oil, but not water lubrication. With oil lubrication the fatigue failure initiates close to the location of the surface defect. However, with water as the lubricant the whole of the surface undergoes cracking with the defect having no preferential effect. Studies have also been carried out to investigate the damage caused by the entrainment of solid particles into the wheel-rail contact. This kind of damage can accelerate surface fatigue and also lead to excessive wear. An attempt has been made to quantify the wear process and develop a simple empirical model.
disc, test, machine, railway, track, wheel-rail, contacts, surface, damage, rolling, contact, fatigue
0954-4097
261-275
Gao, N.
9c1370f7-f4a9-4109-8a3a-4089b3baec21
Dwyer-Joyce, R.S.
5af2f6ff-bde0-4ab2-aca6-38a927faef7f
Grieve, D.G.
401f1423-e45e-4b4a-a0ae-3080f7250e18
Gao, N.
9c1370f7-f4a9-4109-8a3a-4089b3baec21
Dwyer-Joyce, R.S.
5af2f6ff-bde0-4ab2-aca6-38a927faef7f
Grieve, D.G.
401f1423-e45e-4b4a-a0ae-3080f7250e18

Gao, N., Dwyer-Joyce, R.S. and Grieve, D.G. (2001) Disc machine testing to assess the life of surface-damaged railway track. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, 215 (4), 261-275.

Record type: Article

Abstract

Wheel-rail contacts operate in an arduous and contaminated environment. Railway track running surfaces can become damaged either prior to or during operation. This work is aimed at understanding how that surface damage can affect the life of railway track. Pre-damaged surfaces and track damaged by the entrainment of solid contaminants are considered under both oil and water lubrication. A series of small-scale laboratory experiments has been carried out on a twin-disc rolling-sliding test machine. The test discs are artificially indented and run under typical wheel-rail contact conditions. The experimental results revealed that artificial dents only reduce the fatigue life of the contact under oil, but not water lubrication. With oil lubrication the fatigue failure initiates close to the location of the surface defect. However, with water as the lubricant the whole of the surface undergoes cracking with the defect having no preferential effect. Studies have also been carried out to investigate the damage caused by the entrainment of solid particles into the wheel-rail contact. This kind of damage can accelerate surface fatigue and also lead to excessive wear. An attempt has been made to quantify the wear process and develop a simple empirical model.

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More information

Published date: 2001
Keywords: disc, test, machine, railway, track, wheel-rail, contacts, surface, damage, rolling, contact, fatigue

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 22171
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/22171
ISSN: 0954-4097
PURE UUID: ea4c7f56-3bb3-47a8-b988-9837c3e79215
ORCID for N. Gao: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7430-0319

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 23 Mar 2006
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:21

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Contributors

Author: N. Gao ORCID iD
Author: R.S. Dwyer-Joyce
Author: D.G. Grieve

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