Experimental investigation of wheel rail adhesion under leaf contamination conditions

Jiajun Zhou, Wenliang Zhu, Chun Tian, Mengling Wu and Gengwei Zhai

International Journal of Rail Transportation, 2025, vol. 13, issue 5, 908-927

Abstract: In order to investigate the adhesion degradation caused by leaves and the adhesion improvement behaviour under wheel sliding conditions, a novel circumferential wheel/ring based rolling contact test rig was used in this paper. The leaves were meticulously distributed across the ring-shaped rail surface to closely mimic real-world track conditions, facilitating adhesion testing under scenarios involving leaf pulp, green leaves, soaked fallen leaves, and different species of leaves. The results indicate that leaves can induce adhesion values as low as 0.05, with no significant discrepancy observed in the low adhesion values caused by different leaf species. In addition, the study shows that the low adhesion surface formed by leaves is not static, the sliding action of the wheels can effectively remove the black substance layer formed by leaf debris on the rail surface, with the cleaning effect becoming more pronounced with increasing speed and axle load. Finally, based on the experimental results, this paper proposes characteristic parameters for the Polach wheel-rail adhesion formula under leaf contamination conditions, and develops an empirical formula for adhesion improvement.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/23248378.2024.2423336

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International Journal of Rail Transportation is currently edited by Wanming Zhai and Kelvin C. P. Wang

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