Implementation of a wheel–rail temperature model for locomotive traction studies

Calculation of the temperature in the contact zone at the wheel–rail interface is a very complex and important issue for multidisciplinary railway studies. The knowledge of temperature in the contact interface between two bodies, and with the possible presence of a third body interfacial layer, allows making informed judgments on processes in areas such as lubricant choice, wear estimation, life cycle prediction, etc. This paper focuses on development of a temperature modelling methodology in Gensys, and also presents its implementation for the study of temperatures at different contact points (top of rail, gauge corner, and gauge face contacts). In operational practice, all these mentioned contacts have different coefficients of friction which should be characterized as velocity and slip-dependent variables. To demonstrate the workability of the developed methodology, numerical experiments for a heavy haul locomotive equipped with a simplified bogie traction control system have been performed on curved track, where a locomotive has been operated under maximum traction forces and with longitudinal and lateral coupler forces attached in order to take into account train dynamics. Both new and worn rail profiles have been used. Limitations of the proposed methodology as well as proposed future work and further improvements are discussed.