| Abstract: | Wheel–rail interface management is imperative to railway operation and its maintenance represents a major share of the total maintenance cost. In general, the course of events usually called wear is a complicated process involving several modes of material deterioration and contact surface alteration. Thus material removal or relocation, plastic flow and phase transformation may take place at, just below, or in-between the contacting surfaces. A higher degree of predictability of deterioration mechanisms and a firm basis for optimisation of the wheel–rail system are anticipated to reveal a great potential for cost savings. Wear in the sense of material loss and related wheel–rail profile evolution represents one of several modes of damage. The purpose of this survey is to explore research on wear simulation, to some degree extended to neighbouring disciplines. It is believed that a cross-disciplinary approach involving, for instance, adhesive and abrasive wear, surface plasticity, and rolling contact fatigue opens new perspectives to improved damage prediction procedures. |
