Thermal-Mechanical Modelling of the Rolling-Plus-Sliding With Frictional Heating of a Locomotive Wheel

This paper examines finite element models for studying the long time frictional heating of locomotive wheels. The aim is to obtain the temperature distribution and the thermal and residual stresses in the wheel, for given conditions of rolling-plus-sliding, with the least computing effort. Initially a rigorous 3-D model is employed. Then this model is reduced to a much simpler but equivalent 2-D axisymmetric model with reasonable assumptions. It is shown, with the help of the 3-D model, that the actual temperature distribution is fluctuating and exhibits a sharp spike during each wheel rotation. For a part of the cycle the temperature is much higher than the steady state temperature calculated from the 2-D model.