An Efficient Thermo‐Kinematic (ETK) Model for Long‐Time Simulation of High Speed Railway Brake Dynamics

Abstract

High speed railway brakes transfer a large amount of kinetic energy into heat during the brake operation. Due to its design one major problem is tapered wear, which could significantly reduce brake performance and safety as well as increase aftermarket costs. Modeling and simulation of these brake systems is rather complicated with respect to the coupled multiphysics, multiscaled phenomena, friction and wear, especially on long time scale. Here, we present the so-called Efficient Thermo-Kinematic (ETK) model, which include the complexities of the multiphysics of the brake process in the efficient way. Using this model, we are able to proceed the simulation of the brake dynamics in long-time scale. The partial differential equations are derived based on the coupled manner. The simulation with ETK model shows reasonable results with very fast computational time. The ratio of computing time to real time can reach 1:2000 (with a standard personal computer). Thus, investigations on tapered wear can be performed not only in one brake operation but in many times of brake operations. The simulation results will support the development process of railway brakes in order to mitigate tapered wear of the brake pads.