The wheel rail contact operates in an arduous
environment. Damage to the surface of either
component is possible during manufacture, installation,
or operation. The question arises as to how tolerant is
the railway wheel or section of track to surface
indentation or damage.
In this work a twin disc simulation has been used
to relate the level of surface damage (as well as the way
it is generated) to the fatigue life of the surfaces. A
related problem is the presence of solid contamination
on the track. Sand (applied for improved adhesion) or
track ballast material can cause damage to the rail and
wheel surfaces. These mechanisms have been explored
to assess the effect on contact fatigue life and wear. The
disc specimens have been either artificially damaged
(with dents and scratches) or run with particles of sand
or ballast material. The discs were then loaded and
rotated at realistic conditions of contact pressure and
controlled slip.
For normal operation of the contact, either dry or
with water lubrication, surface dents and scratches have
little effect on fatigue life. The normal plastic flow in
the rail surface layer acts to close up dents. The failure
of the disc is then by fatigue cracking across the whole
surface with no particular preference to the dent
location. Alternatively, if the contact is lubricated with
oil then this plastic flow is greatly reduced and the dents
act as stress raisers and fatigue cracks initiate from their
trailing edge.
Sand or ballast particles are crushed as they enter
the wheel/rail contact. The fragments indent the surfaces
and rapidly roughen the contact faces. The surface
indentation is relatively minor, but the presence of
particles increases the level of traction (over the wet
case) and promotes further surface plastic flow. This
can reduce the residual fatigue life of the contact.
Further, high concentrations of sand were shown to
promote a low cycle fatigue process that caused very
high wear by the spallation of material.
The twin disc simulations have shown that, under
conditions similar to that of wheel/rail operation,
surface damage is not a primary cause of fatigue failure.
However, wear is greatly accelerated by the presence of
solid contaminants and some evidence of a low cycle
fatigue process was observed for sanded contacts
