Study on Wheel-Rail Adhesion Restoration Effect by Sanding Using Novel Adhesion-Enhancement Particles

Abstract

A novel adhesion-enhancement particle was prepared in this study. Results indicated that when the particle crushing stress increased from 20 MPa to 68 MPa, the adhesion coefficient increased. Then the adhesion coefficient kept stable after particle crushing stress exceeded 68 MPa. The novel adhesion-enhancement particle showed a better performance on wheel-rail adhesion improvement compared to sand and alumina. Specifically, the unsintered novel adhesion-enhancement particles  had a comparable effect to sand on wheel-rail adhesion enhancement, but causing less damage to the wheel and rail. While sintered novel adhesion-enhancement particles (68 MPa) and alumina performed better on adhesion improvement than sand, while caused less damage to the wheel-rail than alumina.

Keywords: Wheel-rail, Sanding, Adhesion enhancement, Novel adhesion-enhancement particles