An investigation into the mechanism of the out-of-round wheels of metro train and its mitigation measures

This paper presents an investigation into the mechanism of polygonal wear of metro train wheels through experiments conducted at field sites. The experiments comprise dynamic behaviour test of vehicle and track system, the wheel transverse wear and polygonal wear measurements, rail corrugation and rail weld joint irregularities’ measurements. Moreover, the numerical modal analysis of the wheelset is also performed. The wheel measurement results show that most wheels exhibit obvious eccentricity and polygonal wear with 5–8 harmonics. The investigation results indicate that the wavelength-fixing mechanism of the wheel out-of-roundness with 5–8 harmonics is the P2 resonance. Four measures have been proposed to mitigate the formation of wheel polygonal wear based on the field measurement results.