Experimental study on adhesion behavior of wheel/rail under dry and water conditions

The aim of this paper is to investigate the adhesion behavior of wheel/rail under dry and water conditions using a JD-1 wheel/rail simulation facility. The results indicate that a wheel/rail simulation facility has been developed and used to assess the effect of dry and water lubricant conditions on adhesion behavior of wheel/rail. The adhesion coefficient of wheel/rail rises rapidly with the increase of creep ratio and then has a slower and slight decrease up to 5% under dry condition. The water medium can significantly affect the adhesion behavior of wheel/rail. Water lubricant condition gives the lower values of adhesion coefficient with dry condition giving higher values. The increase of speed and attack angle would markedly decrease adhesion coefficient of wheel/rail under dry and water lubricant conditions. However, axle load has no obvious influence on adhesion coefficient of wheel/rail under water condition.