Abstract
It’s generally known that tangential force of wheel/rail interface which depends on a change of coefficient of friction between wheel and rail has a big influence on a steady lateral force of railway vehicle. According to our past researches, regardless of an attack angle, tangential force coefficient becomes smaller in the case with fine unevenness than in the case without fine unevenness on the surface by means of a two-disk rolling contact machine. In particular, a tangential force coefficient is more affected by the situation of with /without fine unevenness under low relative humidity condition. The conditions under low relative humidity are almost the same as the conditions that a coefficient of friction of wheel/rail is high. In this paper, in order to reduce steady lateral force during a railway vehicle passing curve, we proposed a new wheel tread profile with providing one streak of fine unevenness, called ‘Micro-ribbed wheel tread profile’ on a wheel tread away from a flange. We verified a validity of this wheel tread profile by applying a numerical analysis and a running test in RTRI. As a result, we confirmed that the Micro-ribbed wheel tread profile is effective to reduce the steady lateral force of the outside wheel/rail interface when the railway vehicle is passing curve under high coefficient of friction between wheel and rail.
