A geometrical review on the wear of rail and KTX wheel

레일과 차륜의 마모에 대한 기하학적 검토

Before the complete construction of new high-speed line between Seoul and Pusan, KTX is going to operate on both new high-speed line between Seoul and Daegu and electrified conventional lines between Daegu and Pusan. Then, the wheels of KTX are going to operate on various rails such as KS50N and KS60 of conventional line as well as UIC60 of high-speed line. Also, conventional line will have a mixed traffic mode with various types of trains operating on it, such as Saemaul and Mugunghwa. Hence, this study reviews the wear phenomena of wheels and rails in geometrical point of view by comparing their profiles. The analyses of the results show that because UIC60 rail is designed for KTX, KS50N rail whose profile is similar to that of UIC60 will not have any impact on the shape of wheel wear. On the other hand, KS60 rail is expected to have partial wear on both the flange of KTX wheel and the gauge corner of the rail in the initial stages. However, the operation of the trains whose wheels have 1/20 conicity will cause partial sidewear on the inside of the rail and the movement of the contact point between KTX wheel and the rail toward the inside of the track. As a result, the flange wear of KTX wheel will be reduced and the formation of wear-equilibrium profile will be faster.