An Experimental Study of the Influence of the Amount of Top-Of-Rail Friction Modifiers on Traction

This study presents an experimental study of the effect of Top-of-Rail Friction Modifiers (TORFM) in quantities ranging from a small to a large amount on the progression of wheel-rail wear, using the Virginia Tech-FRA (VT-FRA) roller rig. TORFM behaves as a third body layer in between the wheel and rail and is applied to reduce wheel and rail wear while preserving a stable traction condition. An added benefit of TORFM is that it is estimated that it can reduce fuel consumption by controlling friction, although we are not aware of any proven data in support of this. Although widely used by the U.S. Class I railroads, there exists no proven method for determining, qualitatively or quantitatively, how the amount of TORFM and rail/wheel wear are related. Simply put, would increasing TORFM amount by a factor of two reduce wheel/rail wear and damage by one-half? How would such doubling effect traction or the longevity of TORFM on the wheel/rail surface? In this study, the VT-FRA roller rig is used to perform a series of tests under highly controlled conditions to shed more light on answering these questions. A series of controlled experiments are designed and performed in order to investigate the potential factors that may influence the traction performance. The wheel surface profile is measured by a high-precision, 3D, laser profiler to measure the progression of wheel wear for the duration of the experiments. The results indicate that it takes as much longer time for the traction force (traction coefficient) to reach a condition that is the same as the unlubricated rail, when compared between lightly-, moderately-, and heavily-lubricated conditions. The results further indicate that wear generation is delayed significantly among all lubrication conditions — even, the lightly-lubricated — when compared with the unlubricated conditions. A further evaluation of the results and additional tests are needed to provide further insight into some of the preliminary results that we have observed thus far.

Traction behaviour of elastohydrodynamic lubrication films with anomalous shapes

This study describes traction behaviours of lubricant films having anomalous shapes under elastohydrodynamic lubrication conditions. The traction generated at a point contact area between a glass or sapphire disc and a steel ball was measured by changing the slide-to-roll ratio. Three alcohols, 1-dodecanol, ethylene glycol and glycerol, and two alkanes of n-tetradecane and n-hexadecane were used as lubricants. Lubricants developing anomalous film shapes exhibited a solid-like behaviour with a sharp traction peak at low slide-to-roll ratios. On the contrary, other lubricants having conventional film shapes indicated a gradual increase in traction coefficient with increasing slide-to-roll ratios. The similarity of the traction behaviour to that of traction fluids supports the solidification of the film, which developed anomalous film shapes.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF CREATING A MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF TRACTOR TRACTION EFFICIENCY

To identify the main parameters of the tractor - its mass, engine power, wheel diameter and its profile width (four-parameter optimization) using the optimization criterion - the total energy costs (taking into account the energy of the crop lost due to the non-optimality of these parameters), it is necessary to have a mathematical model for calculation of engine power through the traction coefficient of performance of the tractor. The traction efficiency of the tractor is calculated through f is the coefficient of resistance to rolling of the tractor wheel and d is the coefficient of slipping of the tractor wheel. An analysis of the applied theory developed by previous researchers showed that the values f and d depend on the weight of the tractor coming to one wheel G, the diameter D and the width of the profile of the wheel B, the pressure in its tires ρw, the hardness of the soil H, the effort on the tractor hook Pkp and its speed V. During the analysis, it was found that the larger the diameter of the wheel, the width of the tire profile, the less the vertical load on the wheel and the pressure in the tires, the less the resistance to rolling the wheel over the soil being compacted. It is concluded that the study of the nature of the change in the coefficient of resistance to rolling wheels f and their slipping d from the above factors must be carried out jointly, because they influence each other. The absence of acceptable mathematical dependences for calculating the indicated coefficients, with the simultaneous action of all identified factors, leads to the need for a seven-factor experiment to identify the dependencies f =j (G, D, b, ρw, H, Ркр, V) and δ =ψ (G, D, b, ρw, H, Ркр, V), which is very difficult in operating conditions, therefore, using the similarity theory, it is necessary to reduce the number of factors in the experiment to four.

Influence of Soil on the Traction Performance of a 65 kW MFWD Tractor

This study aimed to investigate the influence of the mechanical behaviour of the soil surface on the traction performance and the fuel consumption of an agricultural tractor, both in qualitative and in quantitative terms, in order to increase the consciousness about the major role of the soil mechanical response in the optimisation of the energy aspects involved in the traction developed by a tractor and promote the development of new strategies to reduce costs of tillage management and improve agricultural sustainability. The traction performance of a 65 kW MFWD tractor at tyre pressures of 60 and 160 kPa was compared on four Swiss agricultural soils: a clay with corn stubbles, a clay loam with wheat stubbles, a silty loam and a loamy sand both with corn stubbles. Tests performed with a bevameter pointed out noticeable differences in the mechanical behaviour of the soils. According to such differences, the drawbar pull on the four soils was significantly disparate with differences in maximal values of about 16% at a tyre pressure of 60 kPa and up to 37% at a tyre pressure of 160 kPa. Simulations with a semi-empirical tractor-soil interaction model also showed dissimilarities in traction coefficient, motion resistance, and traction efficiency. Measurements of the fuel consumption pointed out the presence of a narrow slip range where the specific fuel consumption SFC is minimised. This range doesn’t vary significantly among the considered soils as well as with the tyre pressure and doesn’t differ very much from the range where the power delivery efficiency is maximised. The SFC differed for almost 20% among the considered soils at a tyre pressure of 60 kPa and for ca. 10% at a tyre pressure of 160 kPa. The increase in tyre pressure from 60 to 160 kPa produced an increment in SFC up to 16%. The results of this study clearly pointed out how the traction performance is a characteristic of the tractor-soil system and not of the tractor only, therefore, a proper knowledge of the soil mechanical behaviour should aid in developing strategies oriented towards reducing fossil fuel consumption.

Steady-state performance of elliptical contact lubricated with micropolar fluids

In this work, the numerical investigation is done for the steady-state performance of elliptical contacts lubricated with micropolar fluids. The Eringen’s micro-continuum theory is applied to deduce the modified Reynolds equation for micropolar fluids. The modified Reynolds equation is discretized by the finite difference technique and evaluated by a multigrid technique for finding the steady-state pressure distribution; simultaneously, the elasticity equation is solved with the multilevel multi-integration method. The numerical solution is achieved under isothermal conditions and considering the exponential variation of viscosity with pressure. The effect of micropolar parameters, i.e. nondimensional characteristics length defines the molecular length of the blended additives, and coupling number measures the coupling between the angular and linear momentum of molecules, and operating parameters are studied. Owing to the analysis, the pronounced effect of the micropolar parameters on the elastohydrodynamic lubrication of elliptical contacts is observed and which cannot be avoided. Lubricants added with solid additives and coupling between linear and angular momentum improved the overall film thickness and pressure and enhanced the load-carrying capacity. Also, a nominal rise in the traction coefficient is noticed, but this increase in the traction coefficient is quite less when compared to Newtonian fluids.