Ultrasonic measurements of nominal contact area and contact pressure in a wheel-rail system
- 1 July 2000
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit
- Vol. 214 (4), 231-243
- https://doi.org/10.1243/0954409001531333
Abstract
For more than a century, the contact between wheel and rail has been the subject of careful investigation by scientists and railway technicians. Many efforts have been made to understand a series of phenomena (wear, pitting, fatigue, failures, etc.) that are closely related to processes occurring in such a small contact patch. A huge amount of numerical and theoretical research work (starting from Hertz's theory) has been carried out, but there is a noteworthy lack of experimental tests, which is probably due mainly to difficulties in accessing the contact area with conventional techniques. In the present paper, an experimental investigation dealing with the evaluation of the contact area and stresses transmitted across it is proposed: the technique employed is based on a noninvasive ultrasonic method that analyses the reflection of ultrasonic waves by the contact interface. By using a set-up commonly employed in many non-destructive testing (NDT) analyses it was possible to obtain graphic maps of static contact conditions, and several tests were carried out to evaluate changes with increases in external load. Results show reasonable agreement with Hertz's theoretical predictions and suggest a possible future use of the ultrasonic method to investigate contact during motionKeywords
This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit:
- A study of the transmission of ultrasound across solid–rubber interfacesThe Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1997
- ROUGHNESS ON DUTCH RAILWAY WHEELS AND RAILSJournal of Sound and Vibration, 1996
- Novel Stage for Ultrasonic Measurement of Real Contact Area Between Rough and Flat Parts Under Quasi-Static LoadJournal of Testing and Evaluation, 1993
- Prediction of contact parameters using ultrasonic methodWear, 1991
- Contact Pressure Measurements by Means of Ultrasonic Waves : On a Method of Quantitative MeasurementBulletin of JSME, 1985
- Contact of rough surfaces: A review of experimental workWear, 1980
- Survey of Wheel—Rail Rolling Contact TheoryVehicle System Dynamics, 1979
- The ultrasonic pulse-echo technique as applied to adhesion testingJournal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 1973
- Mean separation and real contact area between surfaces pressed together under high static loadsWear, 1973
- An utrasonic study of the area of contact between stationary and sliding surfacesProceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A - Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 1971