Full-Scale Tests on a Roller Rig for Railway Wheels Wear Estimation

A testing procedure was developed to experimentally determine the wear behaviour of railway wheelsets under realistic and well controlled working conditions. The wear tests were carried out on a full-scale roller rig for mounted wheelsets. To this aim, a test sequence reproducing the most aggressive operating conditions of a tilting railway vehicle was defined. Through a railway vehicle's multibody model, the time histories of the contact forces of one wheelset on this particular test sequence were calculated. In order to obtain the same contact forces on the test rig, a numerical model of the test rig was developed that allows to convert contact forces into actuators' forces.