Numerical analysis of rolling-sliding contact with the frictional heat in rail

Thermal damage caused by frictional heat of rolling-sliding contact is one of the most important failure forms of wheel and rail. Many studies of wheel-rail frictional heating have been devoted to the temperature field, but few literatures focus on wheel-rail thermal stress caused by frictional heating. However, the wheel-rail creepage is one of important influencing factors of the thermal stress. In this paper, a thermo-mechanical coupling model of wheel-rail rolling-sliding contact is developed using thermo-elasto-plastic finite element method. The effect of the wheel-rail elastic creepage on the distribution of heat flux is investigated using the numerical model in which the temperature-dependent material properties are taken into consideration. The moving wheel-rail contact force and the frictional heating are used to simulate the wheel rolling on the rail. The effect of the creepage on the temperature rise, thermal strain, residual stress and residual strain under wheel-rail sliding-rolling contact are investigated. The investigation results show that the thermally affected zone exists mainly in a very thin layer of material near the rail contact surface during the rolling-sliding contact. Both the temperature and thermal strain of rail increase with increasing creepage. The residual stresses induced by the frictional heat in the surface layer of rail appear to be tensile. When the creepage is large, the frictional heat has a significant influence on the residual stresses and residual strains of rail. This paper develops a thermo-mechanical coupling model of wheel-rail rolling-sliding contact, and the obtained results can help to understand the mechanism of wheel/rail frictional thermal fatigue.