DAMAGE EVALUATION OF WHEEL TREAD USING FLAT GNERATION AND REPLICATION TEST

초록

The wheel/rail contact is characterized by high contact forces and small contact areas. Extreme and complex mechanical service loadings with static and dynamic stresses are superimposed by slipping and braking. To ensure the safety of railway wheel the chemical composition, tensile strength, hardness, impact energy and UT are included to the standards of railway wheel. Although the railway wheel materials are improved, the damages of railway wheel have been occurred in service running. Because of wheel damage with spalling, shelling and thermal crack, the maintenance cost of the railway wheel has increased. In order to reduce the wheel damage, it is necessary to evaluate the damage of the railway wheel. In the present study, the railway wheels have been examined with focus on the damage evaluation of wheel tread. To evaluate the damage for railway wheels, the measurements for the replication of wheel surface and the flat generation are carried out. The results show that the surface cracks in railway wheel tread are due to combination of thermal loading/ratchetting and also that the replication and flat generation test can be applied in new evaluation method of wheel damage.