Comparison of Damage Behaviors of Railway Wheel under High and Low Speed Conditions

The running processes of railway wheel under high speed (350 km·h-1) and low speed (120 km·h-1) conditions were simulated on the wheel/rail simulation facility, and the the damage behaviors of the wheel under the two conditions were compared and analyzed. The results show that the irregular wear appeared on both wheel specimens under the two conditions, namely the smooth and rough region appeared alternately along the rolling direction of wheel on the surface wear mark. The mass loss of wheel specimen under low speed condition was significantly greater than that under high speed condition and the damage difference was relatively large between smooth and rough areas. However, under the high speed condition, the difference was relatively small.