Abstract: Rolling contact fatigue and wear are the main modes of wheel failure. The normal and tangential stresses at contact patch and the maximum shear stresses at different depths of material are calculated according to three dimensional elastic bodies non-hertzian rolling contact theory. In the case of CL60 and bainete steel, LM wheel profile and 75 kg•m–1 rail profile are matched, the effects of wheel/rail contact conditions and wheel materials on competition relationship between rolling contact fatigue and wear is analyzed based on “layer” rolling contact fatigue model and Zobory wheel wear model. The results indicate that, when the friction coefficient is 0.3, the rolling contact fatigue damage occurs in CL60 steel under low creepage condition, while under high creep condition the damage only occurs when axleload is over 30 t; for bainite steel, only under high creep condition and when axleload is 30 t, the damage occurs before the number of load cycles reaches 1×105; when the friction coefficient is 0.6, there is almost no contact fatigue damage in CL60 and bainite steel under all conditions, because the rates of wear are always higher than the contact fatigue damage.

Key words: Creep, Friction coefficient, Rolling contact fatigue, Wear, Wheel