Wheel gauge evolution of railway wheels: Effect of wheel heat treatment

Indian Railways have reported hundreds of wheelset failures due to gauge widening. This study deals with the effect of the heat treatment in the wheel gauge evolution of railway wheels. This study develops a two-dimensional axisymmetric finite element model (FEM) to find the wheel gauge evolution during the braking process. Heat generation during braking, heat partition between brake block and wheel, convection and radiation heat loss to the environment, rail chill effect, and an interference fit is considered between the wheel and axle during press-fitting operation in the analysis. Simulations are carried to find out the wheel gauge evolution by assuming the wheel has undergone heat treatment process, wheel underwent only quenching in heat treatment process without annealing process and wheels without heat-treatment process. For the wheels experienced wheel heat treatment processes entirely or at least quenching process, the wheel gauge of the wheelset increases once the wheel temperature comes to room temperature after a braking cycle. However, no change in the wheel gauge was observed for the wheels that have never undergone the heat treatment process once the wheelset temperatures come to room temperature.