Observations of In-service wear of railroad wheels and rails under conditions of widely varying lubrication

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Observations of In-service wear of railroad wheels and rails under conditions of widely varying lubrication

Steele, R.K.

Some of the wheel and rail wear results from the current test at the Facility for Accelerated Service Testing are analyzed in the light of both adhesive and fatigue wear theories. This analysis suggests that the wheel/rail wear processes occurring in the unlubricated state are affected by more than one wear mechanism. Increases in the hardness of one component may cause an increase or decrease in the wear rate of the mating component. Which alternative does occur appears to be related to the mechanism of wear, the magnitude of the change in hardness, and the relative change in the wear rate of the component changed in hardness. A metallurgy/lubrication interaction that has been observed to occur when lubrication is applied had been found to be consistent with a concept of friction-dependent alteration of surface contact stresses when modified by the inclusion of a material sensitive parameter, i.e., hardness.