Abstract: The adhesion experiments of wheel/rail are carried out using a rolling wear testing apparatus. The effect of abrasive block on improving adhesion and damage of wheel/rail is explored in detail under the water and oil conditions. The results indicate that the abrasive block can obviously improve the adhesion of wheel/rail under the water and oil conditions. With an increase of pressure, the effect of improving adhesion of wheel/rail becomes better. Under the same pressure condition, the effect of improving adhesion under the oil condition is better. The abrasive block can aggravate the wear of wheel/rail specimens under the water and oil conditions. The wear volume of wheel/rail specimens has an obvious increase with an increase of pressure. The abrasive block has an important influence on surface damage of wheel/rail specimens. The increase of pressure leads to aggravate the surface damage and plastic flow of wheel/rail specimens under the water and oil conditions. With the pressure increasing, the surface damage of wheel/rail specimens transforms from the slight wear to obvious surface spalling under the water condition. Furthermore, the surface damage has a transformation from the slight pitting to visible surface fatigue damage under the oil condition.

Key words: abrasive block, low adhesion, water and oil, wheel/rail