Abrasion Resistance and Fatigue Properties of Wheel Steels with Four Kinds of Chemical Compositions

The friction interaction process of wheel and rail under practical condition was simulated by rolling simulation test using a JD-1 wheel/rail simulation facility according to Hertz simulation theory, and the abrasion resistance and fatigue properties of wheel steels with four kinds of chemical composition were studied under the same conditions. The results show that the higher the carbon content, the higher the hardness, the less the wear quantity, the thinner the plastic deformation layer nearby wear surface and the better the abrasion resistance. The crack propagation for wheel material with a higher carbon content was deeper and fatigue damage was more severe, and wheel material with a lower carbon content appeared more wear quantity and obvious plastic deformation nearby wear surface, but its fatigue damage was slight because of the removal of a part of just-initiated micro cracks.