Friction and wear testing of rail and wheel material

Experimental examinations of the tractive rolling contact between rail and wheel are reported. The two roller contact is selected as the testing principle to simulate the wheel-to-rail contact. Wear tests were performed on a new designed test machine. The wear volume rise turned out to be proportional to the increase of the acting pressure and the creep between the rollers. Raising the circumferential speed of the test rollers caused a reduction in the wear volume. A significant wear decrease at the driven rail rollers could be achieved by periodically reversing the direction of the acting friction forces. Examinations as to the extent to which experimental results can be applied to practice, reveal a good correspondence. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.