Suhr, B., Skipper, W.A. orcid.org/0000-0001-8315-2656, Lewis, R. orcid.org/0000-0002-4300-0540 et al. (1 more author) (2024) DEM modelling of surface indentations caused by granular materials: application to wheel–rail sanding. Computational Particle Mechanics, 11 (5). pp. 2353-2367. ISSN 2196-4378
Abstract
The presented surface indentation model is one step towards building a DEM model for wheel–rail sanding. In railways, so-called low-adhesion conditions can cause problems in traction and braking, and sanding is used to overcome this problem. Sand grains are blasted towards wheel–rail contact, fracture repeatedly as they enter the nip and are drawn into the contact and then increase adhesion. Research on this topic has mostly been experimental, but focussed on adhesion enhancement measurement. Thus, physical mechanisms increasing the adhesion are not well understood. Previous works involved experiments and DEM modelling of single sand grain crushing tests under realistic wheel–rail contact pressures of 900 MPa, focusing on sand fragment spread and formation of clusters of solidified fragments. In the experiments, indents in the compressing steel plates were also observed, which are also observed on wheel and rail surfaces in railway operation. These are now modelled by adapting an existing surface indentation model from literature to the case of surface indentations caused by granular materials. Two test cases are studied, and experimental spherical indentation tests for model parametrisation are presented. In a proof of concept, the mentioned single sand grain crushing tests under 900 MPa pressure are simulated including the surface indentation model. This work contributes to DEM modelling of wheel–rail sanding, which is believed to be a good approach to deepen the understanding of adhesion increasing mechanisms under sanded conditions.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Engineering; Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 08 Oct 2024 14:17 |
Last Modified: | 08 Oct 2024 14:19 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s40571-024-00816-w |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:218001 |