<p>This paper presents an experimental study and analysis of wheel-rail adhesion characteristics and wear evolution on VT-FRA Roller Rig with friction modifiers. The friction modifier, behaving as a third body layer in between the wheel and rail, is usually applied on the top of the rail for reducing the wheel and rail wear while preserving a stable traction for vehicles. Such friction modifiers bring great potential to reduce fuel consumption of trains. As a result, the U.S. railroad invests a considerable amount of money and resources each year on applying friction modifiers on the rail. However, much ambiguity still remains, such as the proper amount of the applied friction modifiers for wheel-rail adhesion and their relations with the wear formation. A series of controlled experiments are designed and performed in order to investigate the potential factors that may influence the traction performance. The factors include the amount of the applied friction modifier and its type. The wheel surface profile is measured by the high-precision 3D laser profiler built in the roller rig to capture wear evolution during every single experiment accurately. The experimental results indicate that it takes much longer time to reach traction force/coefficient plateau using friction modifiers compared to pure wheel-rail contact. With different amounts and different types of friction modifiers, the traction performance is distinctive as well. It is also observed that the rate of the wear formation is varying under different friction modifier conditions. All these results can help us to determine what is the optimal amount of top of rail friction modifiers for the railroad industry and shed light on how they affect the wear evolution.</p>

An Experimental Study of the Influence of the Amount of Top-of-rail Friction Modifiers on Traction

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/JRC/JRC2021/volume/84775

2021 Joint Rail Conference (JRC2021)

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