Contribution of manufacturing issues to the development of high impact wheels

Project description

High impact wheels are a recurring issue in heavy haul operations and result in major costs due to lost capacity as well as the need for large scale wheel machining campaigns.  The issue can be contained by high ongoing maintenance as well as reduced speeds down long grades, but these also impose high ongoing costs on the operation. An important contributing factor in the high impact wheels is the non-uniform temperatures around the circumference under heavy braking that can lead to both immediate distortion (causing wheel impacts, which are not confirmed as this distortion is reversed on cooling to ambient) as well as longer term tread damage. The project aims to determine whether there is a link between high impact wheels and residual stresses linked to the initial wheel manufacturing process. The project will establish the technical basis for development of criteria for the uniformity of wheel residual stresses for wheel manufacture to minimize the likelihood of heat localization.

Industry Partner

The project is being conducted in collaborations with the industry partner BHP. The project will require regular collaborative work with various teams at BHP.

Doctoral Candidate

Ms Lily Tran

Portrait of Ms Lily Boi Tho Tran

Supervisors

Supervisor:

  • Prof. Wing Kong Chui, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Faculty of Engineering

Co-supervisor:

  • Dr. John Cookson, Monash Institute of Railway Technology, Faculty of Engineering

Industry supervisor:

  • Mr Romain Saporito, Principal Engineer-Rail Engineer, BHP Iron Ore
Faculties Involved

Engineering

Contact Details & Additional Information