Hardness matching of rail/wheel steels for high-speed-train based on wear rate and rolling contact fatigue performance

Experimental Investigation on the Wear and Damage Characteristics of Machined Wheel/Rail Materials under Dry Rolling-Sliding Condition

“…Up to date, researches on the tribological performance of wheel/rail materials mainly focus on the laser-related treatment of wheel/rail materials [9][10][11][12][13][14][15], the wheel/rail hardness matching [16,17], the selection and matching of wheel/rail materials [18] and various wheel/rail creep ratios [19]. As a potential and promising technique to extend the railway component service life, laser cladding technology performed on rail steels can improve and enhance their microstructural and mechanical properties [9,10,13], increase the hardness and enhance the wear resistant performances [9,14,15] and affect the residual stress distribution of laser-cladded rails [20].…”

“…Their findings also showed that Stellite 6 is the most promising deposition material for repairing rails via laser cladding. Shi et al [17] studied the effect of hardness matching of wheel/rail steels on the performance of wear resistance and rolling contact fatigue life, and the results showed that the optimal Hr/Hw was 0.96. Ma et al [19] conducted a research on the wear and rolling contact fatigue characteristics of wheel/rail steels under various creep ratios, and they concluded that wheel/rail discs exhibit apparently different damage mechanisms under different creep ratio conditions.…”

Ratio of Wheel/Rail Steel Hardness that Ensures Minimum Wear

“…As a result, the hardness ratio of the friction between the wheels and the rails is currently the subject of lively debate among scientists and engineers. There is an ongoing debate about the optimal hardness ratio of the wheel and rail [9,10]. Obtaining direct experimental data for optimizing rail and wheel hardness in field tests is a complex technological and economic goal.…”