Abstract

Wheel surfaces of high speed trains have to withstand great stress between wheel and track. Of course, that causes typical wear and tear damage. Let's take a look at how this happens. With NDT methods it is possible to detect such damage. The results are acceptance criteria for those wheels. Furthermore, the complete refurbishing strategy can be optimized.

The eddy current method and the ultrasonic method were used for testing 34 wheel pairs at intervals of 240.000, 360.000 and 480.000 km operation time. At the end of the investigation the wheels were tested using destructive methods.

Table of contents |Full Text|

1. Visual testing
2. Surface testing with eddy current testing
3. Ultrasonic testing with surface waves
4. Operation of the method
5. Conclusion
Rolf Diederichs' questions prompted Further Discussion

Author

Dipl. Ing Hartmunt Hintze
Since 1993 Head of Department Nondestructive Testing at
Deutsche Bahn AG,
Kirchmöser, Brandenburg

The paper was presented on the German-French Workshop in Aachen in April '97