Optimum Lateral Railway Wheel Flange Radius WithMinimum Wear Rate: Twin Disc Simulation

Abstract

An experimental model has been developed to characterize the effect of lateral radius of curvature to the wear rate of a disc. This is to simulate the wheel-rail contact wear phenomenon in railway transportation where excessive rail wear commonly occurs at the curve, and eventually this will cause accidents such as derailment, etc. The experiment was conducted using two stainless steel discs, ST37 (0.132% C) and ST60 (0.458% C), with different lateral radius of curvature. One disc has the radius of 13 mm while the other disc has several variations of the radius i.e. 16 mm, 18 mm, 20 mm, 22 mm, and 24 mm. The lowest wear rate was observed for the disc with 22 mm radius while the highest wear rate was observed for the disc with 16 mm radius.