Calculations of the frictional heating of a locomotive wheel attending rolling plus sliding

Abstract Three-dimensional and two-dimensional finite element analyses of frictional wheel heating are combined with a simplified analysis of the heat conducted across the contact patch to produce estimates of the variation of the maximum wheel temperature with time for different combinations of creep and adhesion. These analyses can be used to evaluate the wheel temperature for up to 1 h periods of rolling-sliding. After 13 min of contact at a velocity of 22.2 m s −1 , average maximum temperatures on the surface of the wheel exceed 600°C for creepadhesion products CA > 0.054. Temperature spikes of about 100°C for durations of about 10 ms are superimposed on the average maximum. The calculations show that 29% of the frictional heat deposited on the wheel surface is conducted to the rail. This corresponds with a heat flow rate partitioning factor, δ = 0.36.