Investigation of a relationship between twin-disc wear rates and the slipping contact area on R260 grade rail

Abstract

Twin-disc tests present some limitations for wheel-rail wear characterization such as the obtained contact patch and the error for very low creepages. In this work, creepage phenomena are investigated ranging from 0.12% to 2.45%. To improve the fitting of experimental tests with the theoretical adhesion curve, a modification of the FASTSIM algorithm is proposed. A linear correlation has been found between wear and the slip area including the non-linear zone. Normalized weight losses and wear rates are similar for all tested creepages. Applying this relationship, identified for delaminative wear by surface and metallographic characterization, it is possible to calculate wear for low creepages at wheel-rail contact from twin-disc tests, which should be close to the satu- ration of the friction coefficient.