The wear and rolling contact fatigue behaviour of AAR Class C wheel and R350 HT rail using a twin-disc tribometer under dry conditions

The wear and rolling contact fatigue (RCF) behaviour of AAR Class C wheels and R350 HT rail was investigated under dry testing conditions. The RCF crack morphology, length and depth were of particular interest and, therefore were investigated using the twin-disc tribometer by varying the number cycles from 20,000 to 120,000. Thereafter, the wear behaviour and surface/subsurface degradation were characterised. It was found that AAR Class C wheel failed mainly through wear damage, whilst R350 HT rail showed more wear resistance but poorer RCF life.