Study on wheel wear mechanism of high-speed train in accelerating conditions

Wheel wear appears throughout the entire operating life of railway vehicles. Lots of researchers have studied wheel wear during constant-speed and long-distance operation, but few kinds of literature have focused on the wheel wear law during acceleration. This paper analyzes and predicts the wheel wear evolution of the motor car and trailer car of the high-speed train in the accelerating condition. Firstly, the detailed dynamic models of the high-speed motor car and trailer car, which takes into account various non-linear factors such as dampers, bump stops, etc, are developed. To accurately obtain the dynamic responses of the motor car, the comprehensive gear transmission system is also considered. Secondly, according to the wheel profile update strategy based on target traveling speed, the wheel wear prediction model integrating the Archard wear model and previous dynamics system is established, and the vehicle dynamic models and wheel wear prediction procedure are validated by comparing with the measured data in the field respectively. Finally, the wheel wear evolution for motor car and trailer car during the accelerating process is simulated respectively, and the wheel wear discrepancy and wear mechanism are investigated. The results show that the wheel wear rate of the motor car gradually decreases with increasing speed during acceleration due to the decreasing traction force, while the wear rate of the trailer car is unchanged. The wheel wear amounts of the high-speed motor car and trailer car in the acceleration condition are about 230% and 120% larger than the idling condition of the high-speed train after running at the same distance respectively.