An Investigation of the Iron-Ore Wheel Damages using Vehicle Dynamics Simulation

Sammanfattning: Maintenance cost is one of the important issues in railway heavy haul operations. For the iron-ore company LKAB, these costs are mainly associated with the reprofiling and changing of the wheels of the locomotives and wagons. The main reason for the wheel damages is usually surface initiated rolling contact fatigue (RCF) on the wheels.The present work tries to enhance and improve the knowledge of the vehicle-track interaction of the Swedish iron-ore freight wagons and locomotives used at Malmbanan. The study is divided into two parts. Firstly, it is tried to get into the roots of RCF using the simulation model of the iron ore wagon (Paper A). Secondly, the study is focused on predicting wear and RCF on the locomotive wheels also via a dynamic simulation model (Paper B).In the first paper, some key issues of the dynamic modelling of the wagons with three piece bogies are first discussed and then parameter studies are carried out to find the most important reasons of wheel damages. These parameter studies include track design geometry, track irregularities, wheel-rail friction level, cant deficiency and track stiffness. The results show a significant effect of the friction level on the amount of RCF risk.As the locomotive wheel life is much shorter than that of the wagons, LKAB has decided to change the locomotive wheel profile. Two final wheel profiles are proposed; however, one had to be approved for the field tests. In the second paper, the long term evolution of the two profiles is compared via wear simulation analysis. Also, the RCF evolution on the wheel profiles as a function of running distance is discussed. The process is first carried out for the current locomotive wheel profiles and the results are compared with the measurements. Good agreement is achieved. Finally, one of the proposed profiles is suggested for the field test because of the mild wear and RCF propagation.