Wheel Wear and Rail Damage Prediction for Wheels Turned with Thin Flanges

Economic Tyre Turning (ETT) is the process of turning wheels to a profile that has the same tread shape but a thinner flange than the design case, allowing less material to be removed from the wheel diameter. ETT can allow maintainers to extend wheel life, particularly when the wheel is approaching its minimum diameter. Modern wheel lathes are typically capable of turning such profiles but GB railway group standards do not currently permit their use. This paper investigates the effect of using ETT wheel profiles on the wheel-rail interface, in terms of wear and rolling contact fatigue (RCF) damage. It demonstrates how a Wheel Profile Damage Model (WPDM) can be used to accurately predict both the magnitude of wheel wear and the worn shape of the wheel for mileages exceeding 100,000 miles since turning. The paper presents results for one suburban and one inter-city train fleet. It discusses the validation of the wear prediction using data from the real fleets and the calibration methodology used to adjust the Archard wear model within the WPDM to improve the accuracy of the simulation results for specific routes. Having established that wear patterns can be predicted with a good degree of accuracy, the paper then examines how the predicted wear performance changes when wheel profiles with thin flanges (four different flange thicknesses at 1mm intervals from 28mm to 25mm) are used. The analysis is extended to predict the effect of using ETT on rail RCF for typical routes and operating conditions using a series of vehicle dynamic simulations. The analysis considers new 56E1 and 60E2 rails together with a selection of worn wheel and rail profiles.