Rolling contact fatigue defects in freight car wheels

Three types of rolling contact fatigue of railway wheels are prevalent for freight cars of the Russian Railways: wheel spalling, shelling and thread checking. Though all these defects and mechanisms of their formation are generally known, however, there are many particularities in the defect's appearance, formation and development that should be studied. Results of theoretic studies and modeling of the defect formation are presented and discussed. As creep and associated forces are considered as one of the most damaging mechanism for the wheel-rail interface, particular attention is given to study the influence of creep velocities and the coefficient of friction on the contact stress distribution. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.