Vehicle System Dynamics

International Journal of Vehicle Mechanics and Mobility

ISSN: 0042-3114 (Print) 1744-5159 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/nvsd20

Wheel wear prediction on a high-speed train in

China

Yuyi Li, Zunsong Ren, Roger Enblom, Sebastian Stichel & Guodong Li

To cite this article: Yuyi Li, Zunsong Ren, Roger Enblom, Sebastian Stichel & Guodong Li
(2019): Wheel wear prediction on a high-speed train in China, Vehicle System Dynamics, DOI:
10.1080/00423114.2019.1650941

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00423114.2019.1650941

Published online: 06 Aug 2019.

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VEHICLE SYSTEM DYNAMICS
https://doi.org/10.1080/00423114.2019.1650941

Wheel wear prediction on a high-speed train in China

Yuyi Li a,b , Zunsong Rena , Roger Enblomb , Sebastian Stichel b and Guodong Lic
a School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, People’s

Republic of China; b Department of Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology,
Stockholm, Sweden; c Department of Bogie Research and Development, CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles
Co., Ltd., Changchun, People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The number of operating high-speed trains in China is around 2800 Received 23 July 2018
today and 179,200 wheels are under maintenance in one reprofil- Revised 19 July 2019
ing period. To help researchers to understand the evolution of the Accepted 23 July 2019
wheel profile and improve the reprofiling strategy of the wheels, KEYWORDS
this study predicts the development of wheel profiles on a high- High-speed train; wheel
speed train as function of mileage and compare simulated worn profile; wear prediction;
wheel profiles with measured ones. The methodology includes tran- dynamic simulation;
sient multi-body dynamic simulation, wheel–rail contact calculation wheel–rail contact
and wear calculation with Archard’s model. Calibrated by analysing
measurements of worn S1002CN profiles and performing parame-
ters sensitivity study in the wear model, the model is then used to
predict the development of a recently designed wheel profile, called
S1002CN-RF. The simulation results for S1002CN and S1002CN-RF
show that the predicted wheel profiles coincide with the measured
ones. Wear prediction of another high-speed wheel profile (LMA)
validates that the vehicle performance with respect to wear could
be further improved compared to using S1002CN or S1002CN-RF.
Finally, the influence of track alignment and operating speed is
investigated. The wear increases with the speed increasing up to
300 km/h, but stays almost constant with a further speed increase
from 300 to 400 km/h.

1. Introduction
Wear at the interface between wheel and rail cannot be completely avoided. Generally, wear
changes the shape of the wheel and rail profile with the mileage increasing, which directly
effects the dynamic behaviour of the vehicle and eventually the running safety of the train-
set. On the high-speed trains in China the status of the wheelset and its influence on the
bogie is monitored in real time, through measuring the lateral axle-box and bogie frame
accelerations. In order to ensure good ride comfort of the vehicle, the reprofiling interval
of the wheels for Chinese high-speed trains is usually around 200,000–250,000 km [1]. For
some lines, the reprofiling interval of the wheel can be up to 300,000 km [2]. Sometimes
the interval is shorter than 200,000 km because the wheel needs to be reprofiled immedi-
ately because the peak of the lateral acceleration of the bogie frame exceeds the limit value

CONTACT Yuyi Li liyuyi@bjtu.edu.cn; yuyi@kth.se

© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 Y. LI ET AL.

(8 m/s2 ) during 6–10 consecutive cycles and the equivalent conicity of wheel profile is rel-
atively high. Until now, the reason for this problem is unclear and the influence factors on
long-term wear in the field are complicated.
Measuring and monitoring the development of the wheel profile in the field is helpful
to understand the evolution tendency. In [3] an analytical wear prediction model based
on statistics and least square approximation was proposed, however it required to collect
and analyse a large volume of measurement data. Instead, a comprehensive model based
on numerical models for simulation of the dynamic behaviour of the vehicle and the wear
calculation can be established to predict the change of the wheel shape.
The methodology presented here is the numerical model which is based on a sequen-
tial method including the vehicle-track interaction dynamic simulation, wheel–rail contact
calculation, wear calculation and updating of the wheel profile. Nowadays, the multi-body
dynamic simulation can be performed in mature commercial software like SIMPACK, UM,
GENSYS, ADAMS, VAMPIRE and software developed for research studies like TPLWR-
Sim [4]. Theses software contain wheel–rail contact packages as well. The alternative
methods for wear calculation that are used today are the frictional work or energy dissipa-
tion model respectively Archard’s model. The whole calculation process has experienced a
development from very simplified to more complex models. Pearce [5] early used a global
wear function related to the wear index, Tγ , to calculate wear and combined transient
response from vehicle dynamics simulation on straight track and curves to predict worn
wheel profiles. Zobory [6] discretised the contact patch into elements and presented three
dissipated energy wear hypotheses to obtain stochastic debris mass flow of material loss.
Li [7] also calculated friction power for each element in the contact patch, but introduces
a non-elliptical contact model called CONTACT [8], developed by Kalker [9], in his work.
Jendel [10] divided the contact patch into elements as well but he implemented Archard’s
model [11] for wear calculation. Based on Pearce [5], Lewis [12] and Braghin [13] proposed
a wear function that can be used locally and globally. De Arizon [14] did a comparison of
these four wear models. His work showed that the different models had its own applica-
tion areas and a reliable model could be developed by using the respective advantages of
the existing models. Pombo [15] gave attention to a comparison of the results obtained
from the different wear functions and to the global and local contact models used in such
formulations. He did not recommend calculating wear locally in the contact patch if the
computation time was an important parameter for the user, because the results were close
to those from the global approach but the CPU time was twice as high.
Due to more attention paid to the wheel/rail wear in recent years, the research is no
longer limited to the theoretical study, but turned to experimental tests and practical appli-
cations, or even a combination of the both. Enblom and Berg [16] analysed the influence
of disc braking and contact environment like moist, contamination and lubrication on the
wheel wear simulation. They also investigated the elastic contribution on the sliding veloc-
ity which was used to calculate wear. Sun and Cole [17] investigated the wear number of a
wagon passing through turnouts and showed that the travel speed significantly influenced
wheel–rail wear and that there was a potential to optimise the passing speed to minimise
the wear. Li [18] adopted the modified non-Hertzian theory from Kalker for wheel–rail
contact and Archard’s model for wear calculation. The non-Hertzian contact model gave
a more precise solution, especially for flange contact in sharp curves. In order to further
understand the wear on the wheel flange and rail gauge corner, Jin [19] did experimental
 VEHICLE SYSTEM DYNAMICS 3

research by using a rolling-sliding contact test machine with the actual wheel and rail
profiles. A wear prediction model was established, utilising three-dimensional finite ele-
ment models for the contact and Archard theory for the wear model. In addition, the wear
behaviour under different contact conditions including axle load, angle of attack, rail hard-
ness and lubrication was studied with the help of twin-disc tests. The prediction results had
a good agreement with the measurement. Ignesti proposed a wear model to predict the
wheel and rail profiles simultaneously on small radius curves [20] and then presented an
optimisation method to design the wheel profile [21]. Cui [22] measured the development
of the wheel profile, S1002CN on CRH3, and designed a new wheel profile to reduce the
hollow wear. In recent years, with the development of computer performance, attention
has been paid to the flexibility of components of a railway vehicle. Aceituno [23] and Tao
[24] investigated the influence of rail flexibility on the wheel wear calculation. In order to
more accurately predict the evolution of wheel wear, Hossein-Nia [25] and Luo [1] consid-
ered stochastic parameters of wheel–rail interaction such as stochastic rail profiles, track
alignments and irregularities in the whole process of wear prediction.
Independent of which wear prediction method is chosen, the aim is to figure out which
parameters are important to forecast the evolution of wheel or rail profiles, and in which
way they affect, and eventually be able to choose an optimal wheel profile to reduce wear
and maintenance costs. Further, computer simulation to predict the long-term behaviour
of wheel/rail profiles is faster, more economical and environmentally friendly than in-field
testing.
This study focuses on wheel wear prediction for high-speed trains in China and com-
paring simulation results with measurements. The validity of the wear prediction is proven
on two types of wheel profiles applied in the field. Thereafter the model is used to predict
the development of another wheel profile which could be applied in the future. Further, the
influence of track alignment and operating speed on wear is investigated.

2. Wear prediction with Archard’s model

Jendel’s [10] methodology for wheel wear prediction was applied to a vehicle operating
on the commuter rail network in Stockholm. The main feature of this methodology is to
combine simulation of realistic vehicle dynamic behaviour, which provides the parame-
ters of the wheel–rail contact interface, with a local wear prediction in the contact patch.
The evolution of the wheel and rail profiles over time is an interactive process, where the
vehicle response depends on the actual shape of the surfaces in contact. Therefore, an iter-
ative approach is necessary in the simulation procedure, as shown in Figure 1. One loop is
called one wear step. The length of one wear step is limited by maximum running distance
and maximum wear depth. The wheel profiles are updated after each wear step and the
procedure is repeated until the target running distance is obtained.
As the flow chart shows, wheel–rail contact geometry and vehicle dynamics time-
domain simulation are prerequisites for the wear calculation. The wheel–rail contact is
modelled by Hertz’s theory for the normal problem and Kalker’s simplified theory, realised
by the algorithm FASTSIM, for the tangential problem. In order to represent the railway
line, the trains are running on as realistically as possible conditions, i.e. new and worn rail
profiles, track irregularities and the curve radius distribution are considered. The distribu-
tion of curve radii along the line is categorised to develop a simulation set. The output from
4 Y. LI ET AL.

Figure 1. Flow chart of the wheel wear prediction.

the dynamics simulation that is used for wear calculation contains the lateral position of
the contact point relative to the nominal circle of the wheel (yw ), semi-axes of the elliptic
contact patch (a, b), longitudinal and lateral creepages and spin (vξ , vη and ϕ) and normal
force (N). The wheel and rail profiles are in the x-y-z coordinate system, while the contact
point is the origin of the ξ -η-ζ coordinate system in which the contact area is described.
A schematic diagram of both coordinate systems is in the Appendix. γ is the contact point
angle.
The wear depth based on Archard’s formulation of material loss as a function of sliding
distance, load, and surface hardness is expressed as

|s|p
z = k , (1)
H

where z is the wear depth (m), k the wear coefficient, s the sliding distance (m), p the
normal pressure (Pa) and H the material hardness (Pa).
According to Archard’s wear equation, wear only occurs in the slip zone of the con-
tact area, not in the adhesion zone. The boundary between adhesion zone and slip zone
is determined by the intersection of the elliptic traction bound proposed by Hertz and the
linear tangential bound according to Kalker. Based on the FASTSIM algorithm, the ellip-
tical contact patch is discretised with elements. For each element, contact pressure, shear
stresses and sliding distance (calculated from the slip velocities) can be determined. The
slip velocities for steady-state rolling with an elastic contribution [16] in the slip zone are
 VEHICLE SYSTEM DYNAMICS 5

expressed as
⎧  
⎪
⎪ V (n) 1
⎪sξ = − · Lξ qξ (ξ , η) 1 −
⎨
n
dx g (n)
  , (2)
⎪
⎪ V (n) 1
⎪
⎩snη = − · Lη qη (ξ , η) 1 −
dx g (n)
where V is the vehicle speed (m/s), Li the tangential flexibility parameters, i = ξ , η, qi the
tangential stresses (N/m2 ), i = ξ , η, g the ratio of the tangential resultant stress and trac-
tion bound in slip zone, n integration step index and ξ , η the Cartesian coordinates of the
contact patch (m). The resultant slip velocity sslip is

sslip = s2ξ + s2η . (3)

The sliding distance (m) is calculated by

ξ
|s| = |sslip | , (4)
V

where ξ is the longitudinal length of each element (m) in the slip zone of the contact
patch.
The wear coefficient (k) is very important for the wear calculation. Lim and Ashby [26]
proposed an approximate method for mapping sliding wear mechanisms, which were used
to analyse the influence of sliding velocity, and pressure on wear. Olofsson [27] and Lewis
[28] did twin-disc laboratory tests and pin-on-disc experiments for the different wheel/rail
materials applied in the field to obtain suitable wear coefficients (k) for the wear calculation.
There is a large difference between the wear coefficient in the wear map for UIC60 900A
rail material and R7T wheel material and that in the wear map for BS11 rail material and
Class D tyre material. But there is little difference with that in the wear map for UIC60
900A rail material and R8T wheel material [28]. The hardness of R8T is close to that of
R7T. The wear map used in this study is shown in Figure 14. It describes three wear levels,
seizure regime (k1 ), mild wear regimes (k2 and k4 ) and severe wear regime (k3 ).
This wear map is produced in dry and clean laboratory contact conditions. In reality,
there is always some degree of contamination or moisture compared to laboratory con-
ditions, reducing both friction and wear rate. According to experience from Jendel, it is
thus appropriate to scale down the wear coefficients, by a factor of 5.5 for environmental
influences or by 11 for lubrication [10].
With the mentioned parameters, the wear depth can be calculated locally for each ele-
ment and the distribution over contact patch is shown in Figure 2, the wireframe mesh
with colour. No wear is in the adhesive zone. The contribution from one contact patch to
the wear depth along the lateral direction on the wheel profile is the summation of the wear
depth along each longitudinal strip, as the line on the back of the 3D diagram in Figure 2.
The wear depth z in the coordinate system of the contact patch (ξ -η-ζ ) needs to be
transformed into that of the wheel–rail profile (x-y-z) to accumulate the wear obtained
from a series of dynamic time-domain simulations with weighting coefficients (Wj ) in
equation (5) to determine the wheel profile shape after each wear step.
6 Y. LI ET AL.

Figure 2. The distribution of wear depth over contact patch (the wireframe mesh with colour) and the
wear depth distribution along the lateral direction of contact patch (line on the back of the 3-D diagram).

3. Vehicle dynamics model

In order to predict wheel wear on a high-speed train, vehicle and track information as well
as measured rail profiles need to be collected from the different organisations [29] and
analysed carefully.

3.1. Multi-body dynamic model

The multibody dynamic model of the high-speed train is developed in the commercial
software SIMPACK as shown in Figure 3. This model consists of one carbody, two rotating-
arm bogies, four wheelsets and eight axle boxes, which are regarded as rigid bodies. All
components are connected with each other by linear and non-linear suspension elements.
Compared to the real bogie, the vehicle dynamics model simplifies the force elements to a
certain extent on the basis of ensuring the correct dynamic response. As Figure 3 shows, the
primary suspension consists of primary springs, non-linear primary vertical dampers and
rotating arms. The secondary suspension contains air springs, anti-yaw dampers with non-
linear damping characteristic, lateral dampers, vertical dampers, traction rods and lateral
stops with 20 mm gap and variable stiffness. The main parameters of the high-speed train
are shown in Table 1.
The wheel–rail contact model couples the vehicle and the track. The normal and tan-
gential problem of the wheel–rail contact are solved by Hertz and FASTSIM respectively
as mentioned above. The vehicle response is calculated in the time domain and sampling
points are determined based on the wheel circumference in order to obtain simulated
results at the same section on the wheel for each rotation.

3.2. Track information

To perform the wear prediction with simulations on the entire line is not possible. There-
fore, the curve radii and the different superelevations from one specific high-speed line in
 VEHICLE SYSTEM DYNAMICS 7

Figure 3. Multi-body dynamics model of high-speed train in SIMPACK.

Table 1. Main parameters of the high-speed train.

Item Value Unit
Length of carbody 23 m
Width of carbody 3.3 m
Distance between bogie centre 17.5 m
Bogie wheel base 2.5 m
Distance between two wheels 1.453 M
Wheel rolling circle diameter 0.92 m
Track gauge 1435 mm
Mass of carbody 44,039 kg
Mass of bogie 2439 kg
Mass of wheelset 1713 kg
Inertia moment of carbody (X/Y/Z) 101,700/1,692,900/1,692,900 kg·m2
Inertia moment of bogie (X/Y/Z) 1850/1210/2790 kg·m2
Inertia moment of wheelset (X/Y/Z) 1045/111/1050 kg·m2
Longitudinal stiffness of primary suspension 920,000 N/m
Lateral stiffness of primary suspension 920,000 N/m
Vertical stiffness of primary suspension 940,000 N/m
Vertical damping of primary suspension 10,000 N·s/m
Longitudinal stiffness of air-spring 113,000 N/m
Lateral stiffness of air-spring 113,000 N/m
Vertical stiffness of air-spring 185,000 N/m
Vertical damping of air-spring 10,000 N·s/m

China are categorised into several typical curve radii to reduce simulation time. Five curve
radii and straight track as shown in Table 2 are implemented. Straight track takes up 70%
of the network and the curve with 12,000 m radius has a share of 12%. The smallest curve
radius is 5000 m.
The route is assumed to be symmetric with respect to left- and right-hand curves. There-
fore, the right-hand curve is introduced to half the number of simulations and hence the
8 Y. LI ET AL.

Table 2. Curve radius distribution with weighting percentages.

Case j Curve radius (m) Total length Dj (m) Percentage Pj (%) Cant deficiency (mm) Speed (km/h)
1 5000 3650 5 76 300
2 7000 3650 5 54 300
3 8000 3650 4 47 300
4 9000 3650 4 42 300
5 12,000 3650 12 32 300
6 straight track 4000 70 0 300

Figure 4. Standard rail profile CH60 and worn rail profiles with different wear extent.

difference between left and right wheel profiles on one wheelset is neglected. The track
irregularities used are measured on the same high-speed line. The amplitudes are relatively
small, not higher than ±5 mm.
On the existing line, the high-speed train operates back and forth without turning at
the final station. In other words, the leading bogie becomes the trailing bogie on the return
trip. The first and fourth wheelsets use the same wheel profile, and the same applies to
the second and third wheelsets when calculating the wear distribution. These simplifica-
tions again are introduced to achieve realistic simulation times. They are believed to not
influence the results significantly.

3.3. Rail profiles – new and measured worn profiles

The rail profile is called CH60. Representative rail profiles are selected from measured data
at different track sections from one line, cf. Figure 4. Based on the amount of wear, the rail
profile is classified into slightly worn, worn, fairly worn and heavily worn. These rail profiles
are implemented into the simulation set as various consecutive profiles along the track.
Combined with Table 2, the nominal rail profile CH60 has been used with inclination 1/40
for cases No.1–4. For cases 5 and 6, constituting 82% of the track, variable rail profiles have
been applied. The simulation set is repeatedly executed after each wheel profile updating.

3.4. Measured wheel profiles

The wheel profile S1002CN has been used in Chinese high-speed trains for several years
and is still in-service. The flange thickness of the S1002CN standard profile is 34.5 mm.
However, after reprofiling, the flange thickness (t) will be less than 34.5 mm, which results
from the economical turning procedure [4]. The standard wheel profile and the measured
wheel profiles are shown in Figure 5. These wheel profiles are from one Chinese high-speed
trainset with 8 vehicles and 16 bogies, and measured after reprofiling with a total operating
 VEHICLE SYSTEM DYNAMICS 9

Figure 5. Definition of flange parameters (t, h, α), nominal S1002CN (red line) and sixty-four measured
wheel profiles (blue lines) after reprofiling with total operating mileage 882,000 km.

Table 3. Wear rate for the whole train and first vehicle at different mileages.
Whole train Vehicle 1
Wear depth Position* Wear rate Wear depth Position Wear rate
Relative mileage (km) (mm) (mm) (mm/km) (mm) (mm) (mm/km)
59,000 0.324 0.670 5.49·10−6 0.392 2.170 6.64·10−6
91,000 0.485 0.171 5.33·10−6 0.497 −2.828 5.46·10−6
168,000 0.553 −1.329 3.29·10−6 0.569 −4.827 3.38·10−6
204,000 0.767 1.670 3.76·10−6 0.878 5.669 4.30·10−6
*Position means the lateral coordinate of wheel profile.

mileage of 882,000 km. The ‘blue zone’ on the flange in Figure 5 directly shows the variety
of flange thickness on one train.
The sparse turning usually renews the shape on the tread (from −20 to 30 mm) and thus
causes higher flange height (h, 0.14–1.24%) and thinner flange thickness (t, 0.17–7.86%)
while the flange slope (α) changes from −1.02 to 1.08% relative to that of the standard pro-
file (h = 28.2mm, t = 34.5mm, α = 9.86mm). Moreover, the high-speed rail line mostly
consists of straight lines and large radius curves. Therefore, leaving the flange wear unat-
tended, the current investigation is focussed on tread wear. The wheel profiles are measured
at different mileages and indicate a significant scatter in the vertical alignment between dif-
ferent axles. The wear rate for one wheel is defined as the maximum wear depth normal
to the profile per kilometre. For one vehicle/trainset, the wear rate is the median value
of 8/64 wheels. As shown in Table 3, the wear rate on the first vehicle is larger than that
on the whole vehicle. The influence of longitudinal dynamic behaviour in the trainset is
neglected in this study. The calibration of the wear rate is therefore based on the first vehi-
cle. In one reprofiling period, the wear rate changes with respect to the mileage because
the wear status of the wheel has an influence on the wear rate, as shown in Table 3. Finally,
6 × 10−6 mm/km is taken as target initial wear rate for calibrating the wear model.

4. Wear prediction for high-speed trains

4.1. Calibration of the wear prediction model for application on the high-speed
operation
The wheel wear is initially predicted for short distance in order to calibrate the key param-
eters of the wear prediction tool. Besides measured worn rail profiles (Section 3.3), the
influence of other parameters, such as the length of the wear step, transition curves with
10 Y. LI ET AL.

Table 4. Case variations for the initial wear calculation.

Case Friction Transitions Step length Rail profile
Nominal 0.4 250 m 1500 km CH60
Worn rail profiles 0.4 250 m 1500 km Worn, variable
Long step 0.4 250 m 2500 km CH60
Transition curves 0.4 Variable 1500 km CH60
Low friction 0.2 250 m 1500 km CH60

cubic splines and low friction is investigated. The selected settings for the preliminary wear
calculation are called nominal case. Other tested cases are listed in Table 4.
The wear step length is the distance between two updates of the wheel profile. The
weighting coefficient (Wj ) between step length (d) and simulation distance (Dj , j = 1 ∼ m,
m is the number of simulation cases in Table 4). The percentage of each simulation case
(Pj ) is
d · Pj
Wj = (j = 1, 2, . . . , m). (5)
Dj
For each simulation case, the wear depth distribution is zj (y). For each wear step, the
wear depth distribution zc (y) is

m
zc (y) = Wj · zj (y)(c = 1, 2, . . . , N). (6)
j=1

The desired mileage (M) is

M = N · d, (7)
and the total wear depth distribution for the designed mileage is

N
ztotal (y) = zc (y). (8)
c=1

N is the number of wear steps. Longer wear steps save simulation time by reducing the
number of wear steps (N) needed to achieve the desired mileage. However, the step length
cannot be increased a lot. The maximum wear depth zc (y) of 0.1 mm in one wear step
should not be exceeded to avoid unrealistic wheel profiles.
The length (l) of transition curves with cubic splines on Chinese high-speed railways
depends on both maximum vehicle speed (Vmax ) and curve superelevation (h ). The
equation used to determine the length of the transition curve is l ≥ 11·10−3 ·Vmax · h .
The friction coefficient of the wheel–rail contact is usually influenced by contact con-
ditions like surface roughness, lubrication, contact temperature, the generation of oxide
layer and the environmental situation, such as rain, ice and even leaves. Typically, on dry
rails, the friction coefficient is around 0.4, but sometimes lower friction occurs due to rain,
contamination, high humidity or lubrication. A friction coefficient, 0.2, is chosen for the
parameter study to simulate low friction condition.
The initial wear calculations with various cases are carried out for 7500 km running
distance. As the radial wear of the wheel profile shows in Figure 6, longer wear steps and
 VEHICLE SYSTEM DYNAMICS 11

Figure 6. Radial wear depth of wheel profile for each case in Table 4 and partially enlarged view of the
section where the curves almost overlap.

variable length of transitions for different curve radii have a negligible influence on the wear
calculation. The use of worn rail profiles decreases the wear by 20% while lower friction
increases the wear.
In contrast to what would be expected, lower friction leads to higher wear, because
the lower friction increases the area of saturation in the contact patch. That means the
increased percentage of the slip zone in the contact patch is the main reason for higher
wear at lower friction coefficient in the wear calculation. As indicated above, lubrication
reduces the friction coefficient and in turn wear should be reduced. More laboratory tests
need to be performed to establish the relationship between lubrication, wear coefficient
and wear depths [30].
As mentioned before, the target for the initial wear rate for S1002CN is 6 ×
10−6 mm/km, that is to say, for 37,500 km (1500 km × 25 steps), the expected simulated
tread wear is 0.2–0.25 mm. The preliminary simulated wear depth with S1002CN wheel
profile in the nominal case, however, is 0.6 mm. From the parameter sensitivity study
above, we can conclude that applying worn rail profiles decreases wheel wear by 20%.
A longer wear step is adopted to save calculation time and variable length of transition
curves is introduced to be close to the real railway line. It is necessary to further study
the issue of the friction coefficient in the future. It is kept constant in this study. Finally,
with the 20% reduction from using worn rail profiles, the scaling factor 11/23 due to
non-quantifiable influencing factors including contamination and environmental factors
is implemented into the wear coefficients to achieve the expected outcome, approximately
0.6 × (1 − 20%) × 11/23 = 0.23mm. This calibration procedure is a necessary step, since
too little experimental results regarding wear maps exist today.

4.2. Validation of wear prediction model against measurements

With the calibrated wear model, wear prediction for the nominal S1002CN profile up to
400,000 km running distance is performed. Two types of wheel profiles are simulated (WS1
and WS2), which are used on the first, fourth and second, third wheelsets respectively,
as mentioned in Section 3.2. Figure 7 presents the predicted geometry of wheel profiles
and the corresponding radial wear distribution in steps of 50,000 km up to 400,000 km for
S1002CN.
The predicted maximum wear depth at each mileage step is shown by histograms in
Figure 8. The corresponding measurement data are from the first and second wheelsets on
the first vehicle between two wheel turnings, i.e. a running distance of around 200,000 km.
12 Y. LI ET AL.

Figure 7. Profile geometry and radial tread wear for S1002CN wheel profile, wheelsets 1 (left) and 2
(right), as function of mileage.

Figure 8. Maximum wear depth for S1002CN wheel profile from simulation (histogram) and measure-
ment (line and symbols), wheelsets 1 and 2, as function of mileage.

The maximum measured wear depth for the first and second wheelsets is almost the
same as the predicted wear depth at 50,000 km. After 100,000 km, however, the simu-
lated depth becomes larger than the measured one, especially for the second wheelset.
In other words, the predicted wear rate becomes higher after 50,000 km. As Figure 7
 VEHICLE SYSTEM DYNAMICS 13

shows, the maximum simulated wear occurs around the nominal running circle during
the first 150,000 km. Then it moves close to the flange and suddenly concentrates at around
−23 mm between 200,000 and 250,000 km. The concentrated wear increases the simulated
maximum wear depth sharply after 200,000 km.
However, as seen in the left part of Figure 10, the simulated tread wear of the first
wheelset coincides well with measurements at 200,000 km. For the second wheelset, the
worn shape has differences close to the flange, from −7 to −23 mm. It can be concluded
that the calibrated wear model has the ability to predict the development of wheel profiles
of this vehicle on this line.
Separate simulations indicated that the critical speed of the vehicle is depending on the
wear status of the wheel profile. Tests with some of the measured wheel profiles show that
the critical speed can become lower than 300 km/h, i.e. lower than the operating speed of
the vehicle. In the simulations performed for the wear prediction heavy wheelset hunting is
not observed. A detailed study on the influence of wheel wear on the dynamic performance
of the vehicle could not be performed here.

4.3. Wear prediction and validation for S1002CN-RF profile

In order to increase the running distance between two wheel turnings and solve the issue
that sometimes the wheel profile has to be reprofiled after relatively short running dis-
tance (before 200,000 km) due to lateral bogie acceleration levels above the limit value,
CRRC proposed a modified profile called S1002CN-RF (see Appendix) based on S1002CN.
Concluding from simulations and rig test, S1002CN-RF has the potential to improve the
adaptivity to the line and suppress or alleviate this problem.
To assess the long-term performance, S1002CN-RF is tested on the same type of Chinese
high-speed train to compare the profile shape development to one of the standard profile. In
parallel, a long-term wear prediction of S1002CN-RF with the above-calibrated wear model
is performed for CRRC for validation of their initial conclusions. Figure 9 shows simulated
results for the radial wear on the S1002CN-RF wheel profile in steps of 50,000 km. The
second wheelset shows a more shallow and flat wear distribution than the leading wheelset.

Figure 9. Radial tread wear for S1002CN-RF wheel profile, wheelsets 1 (left) and 2 (right), as function of
mileage.
14 Y. LI ET AL.

Figure 10. Left: S1002CN: the nominal (black dash line), simulated (blue line) and measured (red dash-
dot line) wheel profiles at 200,000 km; right: S1002CN-RF (leading wheelset): the standard (black dash
line), simulated (blue line) and measured (red dash-dot line) wheel profiles at 200,000 and 400,000 km.

Further, compared with the radial wear of S1002CN (Figure 7), the wear band on both
wheels with S1002CH-RF profile appears to be narrower and for the leading wheelset, the
wear is deeper.
The difference to S1002CN is that, for S1002CN-RF, the mileage achieved between
wheel turnings, is up to 400,000 km. Therefore, worn wheel profiles with 400,000 km run-
ning distance can be measured. The comparison between simulated and measured wheel
profiles of the leading wheelset at 200,000 and 400,000 km is shown in Figure 10.
At 200,000 km, the simulated wheel has clearly more wear than the measured one near
the nominal circle. However, the worn shapes on the tread of the predicted and measured
profiles are in very good agreement at 400,000 km.

4.4. Wear prediction for LMA profile

Comparing Figures 7 and 9, the wheel profile, S1002CN-RF does not provide much
improvement with regard to the maximum wear depth in the long-term calculation, even
though the radial tread wear has a distinct difference between the two types of wheel

Figure 11. Radial tread wear for LMA wheel profile, wheelsets 1 (left) and 2 (right), as function of
mileage.
 VEHICLE SYSTEM DYNAMICS 15

profiles. Another wheel profile named LMA (see Appendix) is widely applied in other
types of high-speed trains in China, CRH1 and CRH2. With the calibrated wear prediction
model, it is possible to predict how LMA evolves on this vehicle on the same line. Com-
pared with the two wheel profiles discussed above, the radial wear of LMA is the flattest
and most even as shown in Figure 11. The wear depth increases stably and the wear rate is
almost constant. There is no concentrated wear on the tread to generate crests or troughs.
That means the LMA wheel profile has better performance with respect to the wear. Field
tests with LMA wheel profiles sometimes report worsened running behaviour though. This
should be investigated further in future studies.

5. Investigation of the influence of other parameters in wear prediction

5.1. The influence of track alignment on wear
The high-speed railway network in China consists of a large number of bridges and tun-
nels to avoid tight curves. In other words, the percentage of straight track and large radius
curves on different high-speed lines only varies slightly. The influence of this variation on
wear is discussed here.
The information of another high-speed line is collected and categorised into several
cases as shown in Table 5. The ‘new’ simulation set has a somewhat more detailed dis-
cretisation, adding 10,000 and 11,000 m curve radii instead of 12,000 m. It also contains
small radius curves, i.e. 1000 m, which are operated at a lower speed. The percentages from
Table 2 are shown in the corresponding curve radii in Table 5 in brackets. As can be seen
from the comparison, the percentage of 5000 m curve radius reduces with 4% and that of
9000 m increases with 5%. For the other simulation cases there is only a minor change.
The development of the wheel profile with eight cases is simulated until 400,000 km
running distance and shown in Figure 12. The previously simulated results for S1002CN-
RF are added in the same figure with dashed lines. For the leading wheelset, the results with
six cases and with eight cases are similar at 50,000 km and 100,000 km. After that, especially
at 200,000 km (green lines), the maximum wear depth with eight cases decreases slightly.
The wear distribution has a clear difference between −20 and −8 mm. This results in a
higher accumulated amount of material loss than that with six cases. Correspondingly, the
same worn section on the trailing wheelset has the opposite result, the accumulated wear
volume is lower than that with six cases. Up to 400,000 km, the leading and trailing wheels
give opposite results as well, one increases and one decreases. The reason for the difference
is that the leading and the trailing wheelset in a bogie usually behave differently.

Table 5. The curve radius distribution with weighting percentages.

Case j Curve radius (m) Total length Dj (m) Pj (%) Cant deficiency (mm) Speed(km/h)
1 1000 1000 1 80 140
2 5000 3650 (5 → )1 76 300
3 7000 3650 (5 → )7 54 300
4 8000 3650 (4 → )5 47 300
5 9000 3650 (4 → )9 42 300
6 10,000 3650 5 39 300
7 11,000 3650 3 36 300
8 Straight 4000 (70 → )69 0 300
16 Y. LI ET AL.

Figure 12. Radial tread wear for S1002CN-RF with six cases (dashed line) and eight cases (solid line)
respectively, wheelsets 1 (left) and 2 (right), as function of mileage.

In general, the track alignment has an influence on the wear distribution and the devel-
opment of the wheel profile, even though the curve distribution of the two lines investigated
is very similar. That means, if one type of vehicle runs on two different lines with a marginal
difference, the development of the wheel profile is also different. Operating one vehicle on
several different lines could solve the issue of concentrated wear or hollow wear on the
wheels.

5.2. The influence of operating speed on wear

From 2011, the operating speed of high-speed trains in China is 200, 250 and 300 km/h.
From 2017, the operating speed of the new type of Chinese high-speed trains is 350 km/h.
In order to investigate the influence of speed on the wear calculation, a study on just a single
straight track performed for 12,500 km running distance with the speed varying from 100
to 400 km/h. The simulation result for wear depth is shown in Figure 13. When the speed

Figure 13. Wear depth of S1002CN, for different vehicle speeds.

 VEHICLE SYSTEM DYNAMICS 17

Figure 14. Location statistics of all cell elements in the wear map. (v = 150, 200, 300, 400 km/h).

increases from 100 to 300 km/h, higher speed leads to more wear on the wheel profile.
But between 300 and 400 km/h, the wear does not increase and only the wear distribution
changes slightly.
In Figure 14, the slip velocity and contact pressure of all cell elements of the contact
patches are plotted in the wear map. It is here ‘location statistics’. From Figure 14, the slip
velocity of the elements in the slip zone rises with the speed increasing. This indicates that
the wear starts to transfer from mild regime (k2 ) to severe regime (k3 ) at 150 km/h. There-
fore, the wear depth just slightly increases at 150 km/h compared to that at 100 km/h in
Figure 13. At 200 km/h, severe wear starts to dominate, therefore the wear depth increases
a lot. Above 300 km/h, even though the slip velocity continues to rise until 400 km/h, the
contribution of severe wear is almost the same.

6. Conclusions and future work

In this paper, the development of wheel profiles, S1002CN, S1002CN-RF and LMA is pre-
dicted up to 400,000 km running distance; and wherever possible, the simulated profiles
are compared to measurements. The results show that the predicted wheel profiles coin-
cide with the measured profiles and that the model is able to predict wheel profiles and
help to choose a wheel profile that leads to long reprofiling intervals.
The wear distribution and development of the S1002CN wheel profile is different from
that of the S1002CN-RF profile, but the maximum wear depth on both wheel profiles grows
18 Y. LI ET AL.

similarly with the mileage increasing. Compared with S1002CN, S1002CN-RF does not
give much improvement with respect to wear. However, the wheel profile LMA has a better
wear performance due to lower wear depth and more even wear distribution.
The curve radius distribution affects the wear distribution along the lateral coordinate
of the wheel profile and the operating speed affects the wear depth. The wear increases
when the speed rises from 100 to 300 km/h, because the slip velocity increases and the
wear transfers from mild to severe wear regime. If the speed is further increased up to
400 km/h, the wear does not increase further and severe wear remains dominating.
To ensure the accuracy of the wear prediction, a vehicle dynamics model with linear
and non-linear suspension, a realistic track alignment and irregularities, and measured
worn rail profiles have been implemented into the simulation set. To further improve the
precision of prediction, the influence of some simplifications in the current model could
be investigated in the future.

(1) The contact model for the normal problem is based on the Hertz theory. One of this
theory’s assumptions, however, i.e. the constant curvature in the contact patch, might
not be satisfied for worn wheel profiles. A non-Hertzian contact model like ANALYN
[31,32] could be implemented to get a more accurate wear distribution over the contact
patch and along the lateral coordinate of the wheel profile.
(2) The friction coefficient between wheel and rail is affected by the environment like tem-
perature, humidity and lubrication. Lubrication can reduce the friction coefficient and
wear but a lower friction coefficient increases wear in the current wheel–rail contact
theory and wear model since partial slip conditions are changed to full slip condition
in many cases. More laboratory tests are needed to establish the relationship between
lubrication and wear coefficient.
(3) The wear map for UIC60 900A rail material and R7T wheel material was established
many years ago. If the new materials, especially with the large change of the hardness,
are expected to be used in the future, laboratory tests for wear maps with the new
materials need to be performed.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation [grant numbers 11790281,
51575036] and National Key Research & Development Program of China, which is supported
by Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China [grant number
2016YFB1200506-21].

ORCID
Yuyi Li http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7845-8693
Sebastian Stichel http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8237-5847

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Appendix. Wheel profiles
Wheel profiles of S1002CN, S1002CN-RF and LMA with the coordinate system of contact point
(ξ -η-ζ ) and the coordinate system of the wheel profile (x-y-z)

Wheel–rail contact point geometry relationships of wheel profiles, S1002CN, S1002CN-RF and
LMA. The lines between wheel and rail indicate the contact points on the wheel respectively rail
for various relative lateral displacements.