Understanding the impact of emulated initial rail roughness on traction performance under constant tribomachine testing conditions

Maksym Spiryagin, Mohammad Lutfar Rahaman, Esteban Bernal, Qing Wu, Colin Cole, Haohao Ding, Shuyue Zhang, Wenjian Wang, Centre for Railway Engineering, Central Queensland University, Tribology Research Institute, Southwest Jiaotong University

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit

Published online on July 07, 2026

Abstract

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, Ahead of Print.
This study used a twin-disc test under locomotive traction tribological conditions to investigate how initial surface roughness influences the traction coefficient at the wheel-rail interface. We propose functions to describe the evolution of disc surface ...