Abstract: A model for wheel wear prediction is built to research the influence of temperature on wheel wear for heavy haul freight car. Influence of temperature rising on wheel wear is studied, through analyzing hardness change of rail and wheel caused by wheel temperature rising due to tread braking. Compared with wheel wear prediction model in the past, model built takes into account the impact of temperature rising during wheel/rail friction on wheel-rail profile evolution caused by wear, for example temperature rising during heavy haul freight car’s tread braking can be considered. So the results of wear prediction agree with the actual situation better. The wheel wear during emergency braking are obtained with the prediction model being employed. The difference of the wheel wear status between temperature rising considered and temperature rising neglected are obtained. The results indicate that temperature rising of friction exacerbate wheel wear, during heavy haul freight car emergency braking. Compared with the results taking no account temperature rising of friction, total wear volume will grow by 12.1% when taking temperature rising into account and the maximum wear depth will grow by 22.5% when temperature rising reaches the maximum.

Key words: Archard wear model, FASTSIM algorithm, wear depth, wear volume, temperature rising of tread breaking