Study on the influence of friction coefficient on the wheel-rail contact and rolling contact fatigue for the low-floor vehicle

The wheel-rail friction coefficient (FC) is one of the critical parameters in the wheel-rail contact. This study focuses on the wheel-rail contact and rolling contact fatigue for the low-floor vehicle under the different FC. Firstly, the dynamic model of the low-floor vehicle is developed. Then, the area of contact patch, tangential stress, creep force, and normal force as the important indicators are investigated. Finally, based on the Shakedown Diagram and Dang-Van criterion, the rolling contact fatigue of traditional wheelset (TW) and independently rotating wheel (IRW) is studied. The results show that the superficial fatigue index of TW is always lower than that of IRW as the radius of the curve increases. The accumulated fatigue damage is more severe in the FC range of 0.15-0.25, where the accumulated fatigue damage of TW and IRW is increased by 0.0158 and 0.0311, respectively.