Effect of Gas Nitriding on Interface Adhesion and Surface Damage of CL60 Railway Wheels under Rolling Contact Conditions

The influence of surface gas nitriding on wheel/rail rolling contact fatigue and wear behavior of CL60 wheel was studied on a new rolling contact fatigue/wear tester (JD-DRCF/M). The failure mechanisms of the wheel/rail surface after the gas nitriding and without gas nitriding on the wheel surface were compared and analyzed. The results show that the wheel with gas nitriding could form a dense and hard white bright layer which was approximately 25 μm thick and a diffusion layer which was approximately 70 μm thick on the wheel surface. Thus, the gas nitriding on the railway wheel not only significantly improved the wear resistance on the surface of the wheel, but also effectively reduced the wear of the rail; the results show that the material loss reduced by 58.05% and 10.77%, respectively. After the wheel surface was subjected to gas nitriding, the adhesive coefficient between the wheel/rail was reduced by 11.7% in dry conditions, and was reduced by 18.4% in water media, but even so, the wheel with gas nitriding still could keep a satisfactory adhesive coefficient between the wheel/rail systems, which can prevent the occurrence of phenomena such as wheel-slip. In short, the gas nitriding on the wheel surface can effectively reduce the wear, and improve the rolling contact fatigue resistance of the wheel/rail system. This study enlarges the application field of gas nitriding and provides a new method for the surface protection of railway wheels in heavy-duty transportation.