Analysis of Wear Resistance of Wheel-Rail Contact Surface Materials: In the Case of Addis Ababa Light Rail Transit
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Date
2020-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to study wear resistance of wheel-rail contact materials of
Manganese steel and Pearlite steel. The wheel-rail contact is a critical interface in the railway
technology and study of failures in most railways may cause due to wear of wheel-rail contact
surfaces. Application of this thesis is on railway technology in the specific area of Addis Ababa
Light Rail Transit. It is a new railway technology in Ethiopia. So researches on this area are
needed to identify the existing problems and to avoid such problems from the start.
The method of this thesis is numerical and analytical analysis of wear resistance of Manganese
and Pearlite steels. Based on this method wear and wear resistance of wheel-rail contact
materials are evaluated.
Using the results of wear and wear resistance of Manganese Steel (current material of Addis
Ababa Light Rail Transit) is compared with Pearlite Steel (new material). Since, wear volume of
Manganese steel and Pearlite is 0.00169 m
3
3
and 0.00141m
respectively at maximum load and
maximum distance traveled and wear rate value of Manganese steel is 0.00000335 m
3
/m and
Pearlite steel is 0.00000205m
3
/m. On the other hand wear resistance value of Manganese steel
and Pearlite steel is 3.98e
5
5
3
and 4.88e
m/m
respectively. And also wear index value of
Manganese steel is 1846.43 and 1599.97 for Pearlite steel. Results of this wear analysis shows
that there is less amount of wear volume, wear rate and wear index in Pearlite steel than
Manganese steel. On the other hand wear resistance of Pearlite steel has higher than Manganese
steel. Finally, this thesis verified that Pearlite steel is better in hardness than Manganese steel.
Description
Keywords
wheel-rail contact, wear, wear resistance, hardness