FEA and methodology of design optimization of wheel-rail interface for heavy haul wagon wheels

Railway wheel design is done according mechanical and thermo-mechanical assessment requires in main standards (AAR S660 or EN 13979-1). These standards give the main requirements for the design of the wheel plate but the hub and the rim and especially wheel-rail contact are not considered in calculations. In parallel, standards (AAR M107/208 or EN 13262) define material properties that need to be fulfilled without any wheel/rail requirements regarding defects or rolling fatigue contact. The material properties are coming from field experience with a good compromise between wear and thermal cracks resistance. GHH-Valdunes develops new FEA models in order to correlate wheel/rail interface and material requirements in order to bring a better resistance of the wheel steel, especially for heavy haul applications. The wheel rail contact optimization contributes to a decrease of the tread surface defects and wheel LCC optimization.