Simulation of the Thermal Behavior of Cast Iron Brake Block during Braking Maneuvers

Abstract

In recent years, the interest in monitoring the operating conditions of freight wagons has grown significantly to improve the safety of railway vehicles. The railway research group of the Politecnico di Torino has been working for years on the development of solutions to effectively monitor the operating conditions of passenger and freight rail vehicles. As part of the national Cluster ITS Italy 2020 project funded by Italian ministry of education, university and research (MIUR), the Politecnico di Torino has collected a considerable amount of data thanks to the wired and wireless prototypes developed. The data obtained are used in this paper for the validation and calibration of a finite element (FE) model that simulates the temperature variation of a cast iron brake block due to braking operations of an intermodal freight wagon. The developed model can be a useful tool to predict the temperature at the wheel–shoe interface as a function of the current operating conditions since a direct measurement is not easy to perform.

Adding a brake shoe temperature model into freight train longitudinal braking dynamics simulations

“…The heat flux flowing into the brake shoe can be calculated as:where normalΦb is the heat flux that is partitioned for the brake shoe and α is partition factor or the fraction of heat flux flowing into the wheel. In terms of the partition factor, a model used in 23,28 is adapted in this paper:where βw and βb represent the thermal effusivity for wheel and brake shoe respectively; kw and kb are thermal conductivities for wheel and brake shoe respectively; ρw and ρb are material density for wheel and shoe respectively; cw and cb are specific heat capacity for the wheel and shoe respectively; Rw is the radius of the wheel; Hb is the axial width of the brake shoe; Lb…”

Temperature effects on railway rolling stock components

“…The influence of heat load on the contact of the wheel with the rail is considered in the work [44]. The main factors influencing the temperature load of the wheel are determined.…”

Methodology of estimation of temperature mode in the 2xBgu type railway braking system

“…The FEM model for simulating the temperature change in the cast iron brake block system with a railway wheel for the variable braking of a freight wagon has been proposed in the article [14]. That model can be used to estimate the temperature in the brake block / railway wheel system for the real operating conditions of the railway vehicle.…”