Failure analysis for power car wheels based on contact positions and tread slope

초록

During service operation, the thermal cracks and shelling at power car wheel are initiated before a regular profiling of railway wheel. The damaged railway wheel is reprofiled prior to regular inspection and the maintenance cost for the railway wheel is sharply increased. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze and understand the damage mechanism of power car wheel in order to reduce maintenance cost. In the present paper, to analyze the damage cause and reduction for the power car wheel with tread brakes, the observations of by replication test was performed and fracture characteristics depend on contact zones are carried out. Contact stress is analyzed with respect to the wheel tread slope and contact positions. The result shows the zone between tread center and wheel rim demonstrated white layer by higher hardness and lower fracture toughness and faster crack growth rate in view point of fracture mechanic characteristics. The 1/20 of wheel tread slope can effectively mitigates surface damage of power car wheel. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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