Wear and RCF problems of metro wheel/rail systems: Phenomena, causes and countermeasures in China

Wear and rolling contact fatigue (RCF) problems observed on metro wheel/rail systems in China in the last 15 years are summarized and explained from the aspects of phenomena, causes, and validated countermeasures. Presented wheel/rail wear in the lateral direction includes wheel flange wear, rail side wear, and abnormal wear of wheels such as differential, hollow, groove, and channel wear. As for irregular wear on wheel and rail running surfaces, the focus is on four and two important cases for wheel and rail, respectively, i.e., low-order wheel polygonal wear, high-order wheel polygonal wear, wheel stochastic out-of-roundness (OOR), wheel corrugation, short-pitch rail corrugation on the tracks with resilient and conventional fasteners, and rail corrugation on damping sleeper tracks. Finally, some unusual RCF problems occurring on wheel and rail surfaces are presented.