Influence of Wheel Re-profiling on Elimination and Evolution of Polygonal Wear of Locomotive Wheels

doi:10.3901/JME.2025.14.184

Abstract

Abstract: Wheel re-profiling has always been regarded as a main countermeasure to control the development of polygonal wear of railway wheels and to relieve the resulted abnormal vibrations and fatigue fractures of key components. The field investigations are firstly conducted to study the impact of wheel re-profiling lathe on elimination mechanism of polygonal wear of locomotive wheels. Then, a long-term polygonal wear prediction model of locomotive wheels is extended based on the fundamentals of vehicle-track coupled dynamics, rigid-flexible coupled dynamics modeling technology and wheel/rail frictional wear theory. By combining on-site tests and numerical simulations, the influence mechanism of wheel re-profiling lathe on the elimination and evolution of locomotive wheel polygonization is systematically compared and analysed. The investigations point out that the wheel re-profiling lathe affects the elimination and development law of polygonal wear of locomotive wheels to a great extent. The wheel lathe with a poor fixation can’t thoroughly eliminate the high-order wheel polygonal wear; the high-order wheel polygonal wear develops significantly after wheel re-profiling. In contrast, the use of wheel lathes with the stronger wheelset fixation can effectively avoid the residual and development of high-order polygonal wear of locomotive wheels after wheel re-profiling. This study can provide a useful guidance for the scientific maintenance and repair of key components of locomotives.

Key words: locomotive, wheel re-profiling, vehicle-track coupled dynamics, field investigation, long-term wheel polygonal wear evolution prediction

CLC Number:

TG156

YANG Yunfan, WANG Ruichen, CHANG Yujian, CHEN Mei, LIU Pengfei. Influence of Wheel Re-profiling on Elimination and Evolution of Polygonal Wear of Locomotive Wheels[J]. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2025, 61(14): 184-196.

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