Current Students and Staff

Wolfson Lecture Series: From Lab to Field: Case Studies in Wheel/Rail Tribology

• 2 May 2025
• 11am-12pm
• Sir David Davies, DAV030

About this event

On 2 May, as a part of the Wolfson Lecture Series, hosted by Tom Slatter, Professor Roger Lewis and Dr Kate Tomlinson from the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at the University of Sheffield have kindly agreed to share their work with us. They will join us to present their work on 'From Lab to Field: Case Studies in Wheel/Rail Tribology'. The presentation will last approximately 40-45 minutes, followed by a Q&A session.

Abstract

Recently the railway industry has become more open to innovation and change in the way it deals with the issues that it faces in terms of wheel/rail interface management which is essential in terms of ensuring a network can be run in a safe, efficient and sustainable manner. As researchers, it is important that we can deliver for the railway industry and find a route to take our ideas that are successfully proven in the laboratory to implementation in the field to support infrastructure owners and train operators in improving the performance of a network.

This talk gives an overview of work in three areas where initial laboratory tests of an idea have been scaled up through full-scale tests before being taken to the field. They show how the transition from fundamental research at a low Technology Readiness Level (TRL) can be translated to higher TRLs and implemented on track to ensure benefit for infrastructure owners and train operators. They have addressed different areas of concern for the railway industry, but all relate to wheel/rail interface tribology. The final case study details emerging work in particle analysis in relation to health of railway workers and passengers:

1. Rail Head Cleaning to provide a rail surface that gives good braking and traction performance during autumn (Figure 1)
2. High Speed Rail Grinding to introduce a new superabrasive approach to rail grinding that increases material removal rate and reduces surface damage through white etching layers (Figure 2)
3. Laser Cladding of Rail to reduce plastic flow, wear and rolling contact fatigue (RCF) on standard rail and high costs components such as insulated block joints (IBJs) where metal flow can cause track circuits to fail (Figure 3)
4. Characterising Particulate Matter (PM) produced by rail-wheel contact, braking, sand and ballast will enable the development of material or operational changes which will improve air quality. (Figure 4)