RAIL AND WHEEL HEALTH MANAGEMENT

Paper in proceeding, 2022

Rail and wheel health management is investigated with focus on deterioration phenomena in the wheel/rail contact interface – plastic deformation, wear, and rolling contact fatigue (RCF). How operational conditions affect deterioration, and how they can be included in track health predictions is discussed together with a more in-depth description of deterioration mechanisms. Here means of measuring, quantifying, and predicting deterioration is in focus. This provides the basis for the outline of a rail and wheel health management framework. As discussed in the paper, the proposed framework is well in line with the requirements in the ISO 55000 standard for asset management.