Wheel and rail wear—Understanding the effects of water and grease

Wear and damage transitions of wheel and rail materials under various contact conditions

“…This was used initially by Bolton and Clayton [26] and then in a number of subsequent studies [5,7,13,[27][28][29][30].…”

“…Therefore, many researchers all over the world have explored 3 effective method for reducing the wear of wheel and rail materials. Some investigations have been carried out on wear effects of greases used in curves for lubrication [6,[11][12][13][14][15]. Using a lubricant significantly changes the wear rate of wheel/rail materials and the contact conditions for wear transitions [6].…”

“…Various lubricants may help reduce noise from the wheel/rail system [12]. It has also been proved that less wear and deformation is found under the water condition compared to dry or other grease conditions [13]. Furthermore, wheel/rail friction management has a strong influence on the power consumption in the wheel/rail contact [14].…”

Influence of Different Application of Lubricants on Wear and Pre-existing Rolling Contact Fatigue Cracks of Rail Materials

“…An engineered friction modifier has been used to significantly reduce the rail wear and eliminate the development of head check and surface cracks [24]. Hardwick et al [25] produced a new Tc/A wear curves under the dry, water and grease lubricated conditions and proved that less wear and deformation is found under the water condition. At the same time, the application of water accelerates the propagation of pre-existing cracks and the increase in RCF damage is inversely proportional to the viscosity of the fluids [1].…”

Wear between wheel and rail: A pin-on-disc study of environmental conditions and iron oxides

“…These martensite layers were easily oxidized [12] and would mix with snow into a strengthless and mobile slurry that easily spalled from the wheelrail contact and in this manner helped accelerate wear. Ongoing research into wheel-rail wear conditions is being undertaken by Hardwick et al [17] using a twin-disc machine. During the testing, catastrophic wear occurred under dry conditions, but no transition to catastrophic wear occurred with water present in the contact.…”