Special issue on ‘Contact Mechanics 2018’

The Eleventh International Conference on Contact Mechanics and Wear of Rail/Wheels Systems,CM2018, was held in Delft, The Netherlands, on 24–27 September 2018. The conference was organised and hosted by TU Delft and was attended by 213 delegates in total, coming from 18 countries, the largest groups being from China, United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan and Australia. Approximately 60% of the delegates were from universities and research institutes whilst the remaining 40% were industry representatives, including infrastructure managers, train operators, maintenance providers, rolling stock manufacturing companies and consultancies. The conference featured 3 keynote lectures, 112 oral presentations and 48 poster presentations. This special issue contains extended versions of selected papers from the conference addressing subjects that are most relevant to the readers of the Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit. Two companion special issues from the conference are being published in journals ‘Wear’ and ‘Tribology: Materials, Surfacesand Interfaces’. The issue consists of seven papers, all of which have been peer reviewed by independent reviewers.