Study of surface damage in the wheel/rail tribological system

• Grant number: 12/50177-1
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Research Partnership for Technological Innovation - PITE
• Start date: May 01, 2013
• End date: April 30, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Transformation Metallurgy
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Roberto Mei
• Grantee: Paulo Roberto Mei
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica (FEM). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Company: MWL Brasil Rodas e Eixos Ltda
• City: Campinas

Abstract

MWL Brazil and Unicamp developed microalloyed railway wheels with improved mechanical properties compared to the currently used in the "Heavy Haul". However, for the insertion of this new product in the market an approval is required from the Association of American Railroads (AAR), the international regulatory agency, which requests that the tests should be performed in educational institutions. Once approved on the new Class D of the AAR, the railway wheels could be sold to MWL Brazil customers such as: Canadian Pacific, Pacific National, Union Pacific, BNSF, CSX, Vale and BHP MRS, among others. In this project, proposed by researchers from Unicamp, USP and MWL will be created two laboratories, at USP and Unicamp, for rolling contact fatigue testing. These laboratories will be equipped with four testing machines each, designed by the researchers of the group and built by companies of the technology park of São Paulo State. In this laboratories will be developed a test methodology for contact fatigue and wear resistance, in order to obtain reliable correlations between laboratory and field results. Although these laboratories are being built to meet the requirements of the rail industry, in the future they may also meet other companies in the country interested on this type of test. (AU)

Filed patent(s) as a result of this research project