Wear 265 (2008) 1266–1272 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Wear journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wear Problems with wheel and rail profiles selection and optimization Sergey Zakharov a,∗ , Irina Goryacheva b , Victor Bogdanov a , Dmitry Pogorelov c , Ilya Zharov a , Vladislav Yazykov c , Elena Torskaya b , Sergey Soshenkov b a All-Russian Railway Research Institute, 10, 3d Mytishchinskaya, 129851, Moscow, Russia b Institute for Problems in Mechanics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 101 Prospect Vernadskogo, 119526, Moscow, Russia c Bryansk State Technical University, 241035, Bryansk, Russia article info Article history: Accepted 18 March 2008 Available online 9 June 2008 Keywords: Wheel Rail Profile Simulation Optimization abstract Serious problems with wheel and rail profile design arise particularly when combined freight and passen- ger traffic exists on the line or this task should be solved on a big railway network scale. Profile selection policies and real practices are described. An example of practical approach to profile evaluation is given. A scientific approach to profiles evolution and optimization is described and some results are presented. Some aspects of profile management and control are presented. An approach to profiles evaluation and optimization based on combined scientific and practical methods is described. © 2008 Sergey Zakharov. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction There is a wide spectrum of conditions and environment char- acteristics that has an impact on traffic operation. These are associated with dedicated lines, mixed (combined) passenger and freight traffic, differences in traffic density, terrain conditions, ratio of curves to tangent track, etc. It is one task when wheel and rail profiles are to be selected for dedicated lines, e.g. heavy haul line, or high speed line. It is much more difficult to solve the problem of profile selection when combined freight and passenger traffic exists on the line on which different type of rolling stock operate or this task should be solved on a network scale. Such a problem exists for the Russian Railways, that have about 86,000 km route length and about 124,000 km track length, with several climatic regions, terrain features, and differ- ence in wheel profiles for locomotive, freight, passenger cars and electric trains. Profile policies and approaches to profile selection and optimization are discussed. 2. Profile policies and practice A short review of profile policies and practices is given. Rail and wheel profile design for heavy haul lines approach have been proposed by Tournay [1]. The approach is based ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: zakharov@vniizht.ru (S. Zakharov), goryache@ipmnet.ru (I. Goryacheva), pogorelov@tu-bryansk.ru (D. Pogorelov). on the consideration that three functional zones exist in wheel/rail contact and that recommendations should be for- mulated for each zone. In particular it is considered that conformal flange contact is an optimum condition for non-steering vehicle. In Guidelines to Best Practices for Heavy Haul Railway Operation [2] it is recommended to apply a system approach to optimizing wheel/rail performance. This involves a number of recommenda- tions, in particular, regularly reprofiling rails to shapes that conform to the worn wheel to reduce high stress contact and avoid wheel tread hollowing through reprofiling. A description of quasi-static curving program PUMEL [2,3], that evaluates contact pressure for measured wheel profiles (from three different North American Railways) and is used to practically eval- uate the performance of rail profiles, is given. According to Magel and Kalousek the optimized wheel and rail profiles from the contact mechanics aspects should satisfy the following criteria [3]: avoid contact stresses greater than three times the strength of material in shear; avoid closely conformal contact; design appropriate steer- ing capability; ensure effective conicity that are within the conicity window of the truck; arrange for as many contact points across the wheel tread. Rail grinding with “optimal” intervals is considered as a practical and economical technique for maintaining favorable rail profile. In [4] an optimal design of wheel profile for railway vehicle is based on the rolling radius difference (RRD) function vs. the lateral displacement of a wheelset, optimization procedure with target function as mean RRD function or modified RRD function and dynamic analysis of optimized variants. 0043-1648/$ – see front matter © 2008 Sergey Zakharov. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.wear.2008.03.026