Abstract
Thermal damage caused by frictional heat of rolling-sliding contact is one of the most important failure forms of wheel and rail. Many studies of wheel-rail frictional heating have been devoted to the temperature field, but few literatures focus on wheel-rail thermal stress caused by frictional heating. However, the wheel-rail creepage is one of important influencing factors of the thermal stress. In this paper, a thermo-mechanical coupling model of wheel-rail rolling-sliding contact is developed using thermo-elasto-plastic finite element method. The effect of the wheel-rail elastic creepage on the distribution of heat flux is investigated using the numerical model in which the temperature-dependent material properties are taken into consideration. The moving wheel-rail contact force and the frictional heating are used to simulate the wheel rolling on the rail. The effect of the creepage on the temperature rise, thermal strain, residual stress and residual strain under wheel-rail sliding-rolling contact are investigated. The investigation results show that the thermally affected zone exists mainly in a very thin layer of material near the rail contact surface during the rolling-sliding contact. Both the temperature and thermal strain of rail increase with increasing creepage. The residual stresses induced by the frictional heat in the surface layer of rail appear to be tensile. When the creepage is large, the frictional heat has a significant influence on the residual stresses and residual strains of rail. This paper develops a thermo-mechanical coupling model of wheel-rail rolling-sliding contact, and the obtained results can help to understand the mechanism of wheel/rail frictional thermal fatigue.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
ZHANG Bin, LU Guanjian, FU Xiuqin, et al. Failure analysis and metallography of damage in railway wheels and tyres[M]. Beijing: China Railway Publishing House Press, 2002. (in Chinese)
YANG Ke, LU Guanjian, YUAN Longying, et al. Rail damage metallography[M]. Beijing: China Railway Publishing House Press, 1992. (in Chinese)
TANVIR M A. Temperature rise due to slip between wheel and rail-an analytical solution for Herzian contact[J]. Wear, 1980, 61(2): 295–308.
KNOTHE K, LIEBELT S. Determination of temperatures for sliding contact with applications for wheel-rail systems[J]. Wear, 1995, 189(1–2): 91–99.
GUPTA V, HAHN G T, BASTIAS P C, et al. Calculations of the frictional heating of a locomotive wheel attending rolling plus sliding[J]. Wear, 1996, 191(1–2): 237–241.
ERTZ M, KNOTHE K. A Comparison of analytical and numerical methods for the calculation of temperature in wheel/rail contact[J]. Wear, 2002, 253(3–4): 498–508.
FISCHER F D, DAVES W, WERNER E A. On the temperature in the wheel-rail rolling contact[J]. Fatigue Fract Engng Mater Struct, 2003, 26(10): 999–1 006.
KENNEDY T C, PLENGSAARD C, HARDER R F. Transient heat partition factor for a sliding railcar wheel[J]. Wear, 2006, 261(7–8): 932–936.
ERTZ M, KNOTHE K. Thermal stresses and shakedown in wheel/rail contact[J] Archive of Applied Mechanics, 2003, 72(10): 715–729.
FISCHER F D, WERNER E, YAN W Y. Thermal stresses for frictional contact in wheel-rail system[J]. Wear, 1997, 211(2): 156–163.
KULKARNI S M, RUBIN C A, HAHN G T. Elasto-plastic coupled temperature-displacement finite element analysis of two-dimensional rolling-sliding contact with a translating heat source[J]. Journal of Tribology, 1991, 113(1): 93–101.
WIDIYARTA I M, FRANKLIN F J, KAPOOR A. Modelling thermal effects in ratcheting-led wear and rolling contact fatigue[J]. Wear, 2008, 265(9–11): 1 325–1 331.
WU L, WEN Z F, LI W, et al. Thermo-elastic-plastic finite element analysis of wheel/rail sliding contact[C]//The 8th International Conference on Contact Mechanics and Wear of Rail/Wheel Systems (CM2009), Firenze, Italy, September 15–18, 2009, 3: 853–859.
MAKSYM S, KWAN S L, HONG H Y, et al. Numerical calculation of temperature in the wheel-rail flange contact and implications for lubricant choice[J]. Wear, 2010, 268(1–2): 287–293.
WEN Z F, JIN X S, JIANG Y Y. Elastic-plastic finite element analysis of nonsteady state partial slip wheel-rail rolling contact[J]. Journal of Tribology, 2005, 127(4): 713–721.
JOHNSON K L. Contact mechanics[M]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
CARTER F W. On the action of a locomotive driving wheel[J]. Proc. R. Soc. London, 1926, A112: 151–157.
PAUK V, ZASTRAU B. 2D rolling contact problem involving frictional heating[J]. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 2002, 44(12): 2 573–2 584.
CHEN Y C, KUANG J H, CHEN L W, et al. Wheel-rail thermal contact on rail corrugation during wheel braking[C]//ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, November 5–11, Orlando, Florida USA, 2005: 417–424.
JIN Xuesong, LIU Qiyue. Tribology between wheel and rail[M]. Beijing: China Railway Pulishing House Press, 2004. (in Chinese)
BRANDON T, JEFF G, BENJAMIN P A. Investigation of the effects of sliding on wheel tread damage[C]//Proceeding of ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2005), November 5–11, Orlando, Florida USA, 2005: 1–7.
LI Wei, WEN Zefeng, WU Lei, et al. Thermo-elasto-plastic finite element analysis of rail during wheel sliding[J]. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2010, 46(10): 95–101. (in Chinese)
BAUMANN G, FECHT H J, LIEBELT S. Formation of white-etching layers on rail treads[J]. Wear, 1996, 191(1–2): 133–140.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This project is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51175438, U1134202), National Science and Technology Support Program of China (Grant No. 2009BAG12A01), and Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of China (Grant No. NCET-08-0824)
LI Wei, born in 1985, is currently a PhD candidate at State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University, China. He received his master degree from Southwest Jiaotong University, China, in 2010. His research interests include wheel-rail rolling contact fatigue.
WEN Zefeng, born in 1976, is currently a professor and a PhD candidate supervisor at State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University, China. His main research interests include wheel-rail interaction.
JIN Xuesong, born in 1956, is currently a professor and a PhD candidate supervisor at State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University, China. His main research interests include wheel-rail interaction and vehicle-track vibration and noise.
WU Lei, born in 1981, is currently a PhD candidate at State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University, China. His main research interests include wheel-rail contact damage and vehicle-track dynamics.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Li, W., Wen, Z., Jin, X. et al. Numerical analysis of rolling-sliding contact with the frictional heat in rail. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. 27, 41–49 (2014). https://doi.org/10.3901/CJME.2014.01.041
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3901/CJME.2014.01.041