Braking capacity of railway wheels ─ state-of-the-art survey

Paper in proceeding, 2010

An overview of design methods for tread braking systems is given with special focus on the braking capacity of the wheels. Several aspects of the tread braking system, important for the dimensioning of railway wheels, are assessed, such as brake block materials, residual stresses and temperature gradients through wheel rim and wheel disc. The influence of heat partitioning between wheel, brake block and rail on wheel temperatures for different braking cycles is considered. Two examples with numerical results on thermomechanical behaviour of tread braking systems are given regarding the freight and metro applications.