Modified train wheel wear calculation for fast calculation

Sammanfattning: In this thesis, a modified wear calculation method is developed to calculate the train wheel wear, which can give less precise but faster results compared to the classic wear calculation method. This modified method is developed based on the classic wear calculation method developed by Jendel, which uses Hertz theory and Kalker’s simplified theory to calculate the contact variables and uses Achard theory to calculate the wear volume in an iterative manner. Compared with the classic method, this modified wear calculation method does not execute the multibody simulation (MBS) at each wear step, instead, it executes MBS by different strategies, for example, does MBS only at the first wear step or does it at every several wear steps. This way, a look-up table is utilised to store the contact variables from MBS and when no MBS is executed, the variables stored in the look-up table would be used to calculate the wear.In order to make the implementation of the modified wear calculation method possible, a contact point detection program is developed in this research. Significantly, this contact point detection program considers the material flexibility and can detect multiple contact points, which makes it very precise. It uses the pressure distribution calculated by Winkler theory as a weighting function to consider the material flexibility. In terms of multiple contact points detection, the gap between wheel and rail is regarded as a function, and the derivative relationship of the function is used to detect multiple contact points. Results from the modified wear calculation method are compared with results from the classic wear calculation method. The effects of different strategies are discussed, and the analysis of the error source is carried out in this work.This modified wear calculation method could be used for predicting the wear condition of the wheel when a quick result with only moderate precision is needed.