Abstract: The material properties of wheel and wheel-rail contact condition change with temperature rising due to tread braking, which aggravate wheel wear. A wheel wear model of subway vehicle that considers the effects of friction temperature rising is established based on Archard wear model. In the model, the influences of temperature on the size of contact patch, division of adhesion/slip zone and wear depth are studied by considering effects of temperature on wheel material properties to analyze to the impact of temperature on wheel wear. Compared with traditional wear model, the wear model is more applicable to the evolution mechanism of wheel-rail wear when existing high temperature in wheel-rail contact interface, such as tread braking. The differences of contact patch condition and wear depth at different temperature are compared according to the wear model. The results show that the area of contact patch and slip area increase with temperature. Wear depth increase with the temperature increasing. Compared with the result at normal temperature, wear depth 0.4 nm, increases by 28.4%, when temperature reaches the maximum 300 ^°C. The radial wear and wear range in lateral direction after rolling over a contact patch increase with temperature. Compared with normal temperature, the maximum radial wear depth 15 nm and wear range increase by 28.2% and 5.8%, respectively, when tread temperature reaches the maximum. A more accurate theory model is built for studies of wheel wear prediction of subway vehicle with tread braking.

Key words: metro wheel, temperature rising during braking, wear prediction, wheel/rail contact patch, wear depth