History of wheel/rail contact mechanics: from Redtenbacher to Kalker

The history of wheel/rail contact mechanics is an integrated part of contact mechanics. Problems of wheel/rail contact (damage phenomena and influence of contact mechanics on vehicle dynamics, especially on vehicle stability) have been investigated since the middle of the 19th Century. In 1855, Redtenbacher was the first to consider head checking. Stability investigations started with Boedecker (1887) and were continued by Carter (1916); however, they were not recognized at that time. Stability analysis was only considered to be an integrated step in vehicle design in about 1955 when stability problems started to occur in practice. The scientific foundations of our present investigations are based on Heinrich Hertz, Frederick William Carter and Hans Fromm. The key contributors to research in the last fifty years in the field of wheel/rail contact mechanics are Joost Kalker and Ken Johnson.