A Recursive Wheel Wear and Vehicle Dynamic Performance Evolution Computational Model for Rail Vehicles with Tread Brakes

Abstract

The increased temperature of the rail wheels due to tread braking causes changes in the wheel material properties. This article considers the dynamic wheel material properties in a wheel wear evolution model by synergistically combining a multi-body dynamics vehicle model with a finite element heat transfer model. The brake power is estimated from the rail-wheel contact parameters obtained from vehicle model and used in a finite element model to estimate the average wheel temperature. The wheel temperature is then used for wheel wear computation and the worn wheel profile is fed to the vehicle model, thereby forming a recursive simulation chain. It is found that at a higher temperature, the softening of the rail-wheel material increases the rate of wheel wear. The most affected dynamic performance parameter of the vehicle is found to be the critical speed, which reduces sharply as the wheel wear exceeds a critical limit.