Advanced Engineering for Railway Tread Braking

Book, 2026

LRS Techno N.15 - Advanced Engineering for Railway Tread Braking explores one of the most critical interactions in railway engineering: the contact between wheel, brake block and rail.

Combining industrial experience, innovative experimental methodologies, advanced metallurgical characterisation of wheel steels and thermo-mechanical modelling, the book provides a comprehensive multi-scale perspective on railway tread braking and its impact on wheel performance, structural integrity, safety and long-term reliability.

From the development of novel small-scale and full-scale testing techniques to the interpretation of damage mechanisms under severe braking conditions, this volume highlights the need to understand tread braking not as the performance of individual components, but as a fully coupled engineering system where thermal loads, friction, wear and metallurgical transformations must be considered together.

Designed for engineers, researchers and railway professionals, the book provides a technical yet practical contribution to the developmnet of safer, more efficient and more sustainable braking solutions for the future of rail transport.