Ali Asadi Lari - Iran University of Science and Technology, Railway Engineering School, Tehran ۱۶۸۴۴, Iran
Ajay Kapoor - The University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Mechanical and System Engineering Dept, NE۱ ۷RU, United Kingdom
Felix Schmid - The University of Sheffield, Mechanical Engineering Dept, Mapping Building, Sheffield, S۱ ۳JD, UK

Railway wheels are subject to high contact pressure and tangential stresses resulting in plastic deformation and wear. A series of activities is commonly employed by the operators to decrease the wear rate, though not addressing the hazardous failure mechanism of rolling contact fatigue (RCF). The present study has been focused on the running-in period, and on a procedure of bogie direction reversal (BDR) to show the importance of two domains of moving a wheelset, which are contact mechanics and operational aspect. The authors present wheel wear results within both flange and tread regions obtained in experimental work, which are then analysed.

BDR, RDR, wheel wear rate, wheel wear pattern, failure mechanisms