Wear between wheel and rail:A pin-on-disc study of environmental conditions and iron oxides

• Railways operate in an open environment where temperature, humidity, and the oxidation conditions are subjected to change. An experimental investigation used a pin-on-disc machine to examine the influence of environmental conditions and iron oxides on the wear performance of the wheel-rail contact. The wear mechanisms were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy and found to be highly dependent on the environmental conditions. On clean contacts, adhesive wear is predominant under low-moisture conditions, becoming more serious with decreasing temperature. With high moisture and at room temperature (i.e., 20. °C and 10. °C) oxide flakes would self-produce and protect the pins from severe wear, as oxidative wear is the main wear mechanism. Samples experienced a transformation of the wear mechanism from adhesive to oxidative with increasing humidity on clean contacts. Complex three-body wear in abrasion form has been determined to dominate oxidized contacts. Under dry conditions, pins underwent severe wear appearing as delamination at 20. °C and crushed wear debris at 3. °C. Raising the moisture level helps the pins to avoid severe wear.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Corrosion-wear

Electron microscopy

Rail-wheel tribology

Sliding wear

Steel

Three-body abrasion

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)