Thermal FE analysis of a one side brake block test equipment (Part 2)

Abstract

The paper includes the second part of an investigation of the braking process of railway vehicles, dealing with the temperature distribution of a brake block in various load cases and the FE analysis of the phenomenon of thermal elastic deformation. Thermal expansion calculations pointed out to the fact that in case of the contact area, the radius of the operating surface of the brake block increases as a result of warming up. In the course of braking, the brake block of increased radius wears off to the size of the wheel, and after cooling down the radius of the operating surface will be smaller than the radius of the wheel, therefore at the next braking phase the two edges of the brake block will first contact with the wheel. The paper deals with the thermal expansion of a worn brake block as well to compare the FE results with the measured worn data. It was found that the thermal expansion of the brake block is less significant than the effect of the wear on the deformation of the brake block profile.