Enhancing safety in adapting personal vehicles for disused railway lines: Key rail texture parameters influencing Tire/Rail skid resistance

Repurposing disused railway lines in France for personal vehicle use presents an innovative solution to urban congestion, requiring a thorough understanding of tire-rail friction to ensure safety and performance. This study investigates the impact of surface texture on the coefficient of friction (COF) by testing 17 steel samples modified through shot blasting and grooving under various contamination scenarios (wetting and greasing). Results demonstrate that shot blasting significantly increases COF, with surface parameters such as Sdv (mean valley volume) and Sdvq (standard deviation of valley volumes) correlating strongly with improved friction. Conversely, grooving did not enhance COF in greased-wet conditions, highlighting the critical role of valley characteristics in determining frictional performance. These findings emphasize the importance of texture optimization in ensuring safe and efficient adaptation of vehicles to railway infrastructure, paving the way for future research into predictive modeling and surface design optimization.