Influence of wheel diameter difference on surface damage for heavy-haul locomotive wheels: Measurements and simulations

Abstract Fatigue damage of wheel surface is a common problem in railway field, leading to significant operational disturbances and maintenance costs due to frequent wheel turning. After wheel lathe turning, the initial wheel diameter difference (WDD) also accelerates the initiation and propagation of wheel surface cracks. Combined with a practical case in heavy-haul locomotives, the paper presents an investigation of the effects of initial WDD on wheel surface damage, including extensive field observations, statistical analysis of measured data, and numerical simulation of locomotive dynamics. By observing the crack characteristics, and measuring the wear and diameter of wheels, it is found that the large initial WDD caused by unqualified lathe turning is mainly responsible for the observed wheel damage. From the statistics of 53 heavy-haul locomotives in the depot, large WDD commonly exists even in the new turned wheelsets (more than 4 mm). Cracks and partial wear are both developed quickly on the wheelsets with large initial WDD, and always occurred on the wheels with smaller diameter, whereas the other side wheels are in good condition. Moreover, the wheel surface cracks are mainly located on a band of 65–120 mm from the wheel flange back. In addition, the numerical simulations show that the initial large WDD first causes the wheel partial wear, and further exacerbate the initiation of surface cracks.