Justification of the Parameters of the Life-Test Bench for Railway Wheelsets

Abstract

EN: One of the tasks that need to be solved in order to predict the life of wheelsets is to assess the contact strength and wear of their parts. Thus, the purpose of this work is to develop a scheme and justification of the parameters of the life-test bench for railway wheelsets in conditions close to real operating ones. This bench simulates a contact of “wheel-rail” pair as a contact of “wheel-roller” pair. To ensure compliance of the bench tests conditions with the real wheelsets operation conditions we took that the maximum contact pressure in the “wheelroller” pair is equal to the maximum contact pressure in the “wheel-rail” pair. As results of this study we obtained the dependences of the values of the roller diameter and the working force of the bench on the characteristics of the tested wheelset and proved the mutual influence of these quantities. For railway wheelsets with an axle load of 230.5 kN and wheels with a tread diameter of 957 mm, we obtained the following values of the bench parameters: roller diameter is 75 mm; working force of the bench is 8,375 kN; wheel speed is 500 rpm; number of rollers is 8; test duration is about 220 h.