Wear 261 (2006) 874884

Multiscale simulation of dry friction in wheel/rail contact

F. Bucher a , A.I. Dmitriev b , M. Ertz c, , K. Knothe d , V.L. Popov e ,
S.G. Psakhie b , E.V. Shilko b
a Goodyear S.A., Luxembourg
b Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, Tomsk, Russia
c Knorr-Bremse Systeme f ur Schienenfahrzeuge GmbH, Munich, Germany
d Technische Universitat Berlin, Institut fur Luft- und Raumfahrt, Berlin, Germany
e Technische Universit
at Berlin, Institut fur Mechanik, Berlin, Germany
Received 1 March 2004; received in revised form 18 January 2006; accepted 31 January 2006
Available online 4 April 2006

Abstract
Friction is a phenomenon involving elastic interactions, plastic deformation and failure processes at different length scales. The friction coefficient
is one of the most relevant parameters for the rolling contact of railway wheels and rails. A model of dry friction is established based on the method
of movable cellular automata (MCA). The influence of pressure and sliding velocity has been investigated by means of a large number of numerical
simulations. A general qualitative conclusion is the fact that dynamic processes of plastic deformation and fracture at the nanolevel are of great
importance. Within this model, the contact temperature can also be considered by its influence on the strength of materials. The new friction law
is applied to the calculation of stresses, deformations and tractive forces in wheel/rail contact with rough surfaces. Thus, the understanding for the
physical background of dry friction in engineering applications can be considerably improved.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Multiscale simulation; Friction; Wheel/rail contact; Asperity; Contact temperature

1. Introduction of controlled driving units operating at high creep values

The coefficient of sliding friction is one of the most rel-
evant parameters for the rolling contact of railway wheels
and rails. Although already several years ago attempts have
been made to get a better understanding of friction behaviour
[13], the assumption of a constant friction coefficient is still
used in most theoretical works dealing with rolling contact
mechanics [46]. On the other hand, measurements indicate
that the friction between wheel and rail depends strongly on
operating conditions like wheel load and creep, as well as on
the surface state [7,8]. In the case of dry friction, the creep
force curve in wheel/rail contact declines significantly with
increasing creep after a distinct maximum has been exceeded
(Fig. 1). Additionally, the initial slope of measured curves
is much lower than theoretical values. A better understand-
ing of sliding friction is necessary especially for the design
Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 89 3547 2144; fax: +49 89 3547 1052.
E-mail address: martin.ertz@knorr-bremse.com (M. Ertz).
[79].
The method of movable cellular automata (MCA) is a new
simulation technique which has been developed and applied
to the investigation of friction processes by Russian scientists
[1012]. In order to get a better understanding of sliding fric-
tion in wheel/rail contact, the MCA shall be combined with
new attempts in contact mechanics including the consideration
of rough surfaces [1315] and the temperature dependence of
material constants [16,17].
The aim of the present work is to study the influence of mate-
rial and loading parameters on the coefficient of sliding friction.
In rolling contact of a body moving along a plane surface there
are regions without relative motion of the surfaces (stick regions)
and regions where relative sliding takes place (slip regions) [4].
The law of sliding friction determines essentially the maximum
tangential force that can be transmitted [16,17]. It also defines the
conditions for the occurrence of instabilities in rolling motion.
On the one hand, these instabilities result in increased acous-
tic emission and noise level and, on the other hand, can lead
to macroscopic deformations of the wheel (wheel polygonaliza-

0043-1648/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.wear.2006.01.046
 F. Bucher et al. / Wear 261 (2006) 874884
Fig. 1. Average friction curves (creep force curves) for steel wheels on steel
rails with different surface conditions [8].
tion) and the rail (corrugation) [1820]. Thus, an investigation
into sliding friction forces as a function of loading and material
parameters is of great importance for solving various technical
problems in railway engineering.
In order to formulate an adequate model of friction processes
in the wheel/rail contact, it is necessary to determine a character-
istic scale level where the processes responsible for the friction
force formation occur. The surfaces of railway wheels and rails,
as many other technical surfaces, have micro-heterogeneities at
different length scales. Experimental studies show that these are
self-similar surfaces in a wide range of length scales. Therefore,
they can be referred to the class of fractal surfaces. Railway
wheel and rail surfaces show fractal structure in the wavelength
range between 0.1 and 10 mm [21]. This suggests that both the
size of the contact region and the pressure distribution in the
contact depend on the accuracy to which the surface micro-
profile was determined. Thus, if we assume a model of absolutely
smooth and elastic wheel and rail, we will get the solution for
the normal contact first found by Hertz [4]. In view of the fractal
structure of surfaces, however, the real contact occurs in regions
with sizes in the micron range [21,22]. In a purely elastic con-
tact of fractal surfaces, the real contact area turns out to be zero,
and the pressure in real contact regions to be infinitely high
[23]. The real bodies, however, are not perfectly elastic and
their contact region and maximum pressure at micro-contacts
depend on the material hardness since the pressure at the micro-
contacts cannot significantly exceed the hardness. This condition
gives rise to contacts whose size is in the micrometer range. The
transition to even lower (nanometer) scale level would cause
further decrease in real contact area and increase in real pres-
sure at nano-contacts. At this level, however, intensive plastic
deformation of surface materials takes place. As pure elastic
interactions on larger scales have been shown not to contribute
substantially to the friction coefficient [24], we can conclude
875
that it is the scale level at which the applicability of the the-
ory of elasticity breaks down and severe plastic deformation
begins that determines the friction force in the systems under
study.
Based on the statements above, we first restrict our analy-
sis to modeling the processes occurring at the submicron level.
We consider a single contact with a typical size of about a few
microns [22]. We investigate only a small portion of this micro-
scopic region with a linear size of about a 100 nm, where the
pressure is considered to be constant. The aim of the present
paper is to study inelastic processes (plastic deformation and
fracture) in the submicron range and to determine the local
friction laws resulting from these inelastic processes. Then we
introduce these friction laws into the simulation of wheel/rail
contact forces. We show the distinct differences between the
analysis assuming a constant coefficient of friction and a friction
law based on simulations with the method of movable cellular
automata (MCA).
2. Simulation of friction with the method of movable
cellular automata
2.1. Numerical model of friction
We use the method of movable cellular automata (MCA)
[10,11] to model the processes in the surface layers. Accord-
ing to this method, a medium is represented as an ensemble
of discrete elements movable cellular automata character-
ized by continuous variables such as center of mass position,
value of plastic deformation, rotation pseudo-vector, as well
as by the discrete variables characterizing connectivity of the
neighboring automata. The evolution of the modeled ensem-
ble of automata was defined on the basis of numerical solu-
tion of NewtonEuler equations of motion by the integration
scheme of the second order of accuracy. The principles of writ-
ing the equations of motion for a system of cellular automata
and prescribing interactions between them are described in
[10]. In our case, a modeled object consisted of four parts
(Fig. 2):
The upper layer of automata moved horizontally at velocities
between 1 and 10 m/s in different numerical simulations.
Two intermediate layers with initial roughness in the nanome-
ter range represented the surface regions of the bodies in
contact.
The coordinates of automata of the lower layer were fixed to
simulate an unmovable support.
A constant normal pressure between 0.5 and 26 MPa acted
upon all the elements of the upper layer. The automata sizes
were uniform in the whole modeled object and the diameter
of automata was equal to 2.5 nm in all numerical simulations.
The elastic properties of the automata corresponded to those
of steel with Youngs modulus of 206 GPa and Poissons ratio
of 0.3. The yield strength and ultimate tensile strength were
varied between 80 and 480 MPa, and between 92 and 552 MPa,
respectively. The mechanical properties of automata in whole
876 F. Bucher et al. / Wear 261 (2006) 874884

Table 1
Parameters of the model material (for determination of strength parameters see
Fig. 5)
Symbol Value Unit

Youngs modulus E 206 GPa

Poissons ratio 0.3
Density  7800 kg/m3
Elastic limit y1 51306 MPa
Yield strength y2 80480 MPa
Strain at yield strength y2 1.5 %
Ultimate tensile strength 0 92552 MPa
Breaking strain c 4 %
Viscosity 0.41 Pa s
Thermal conductivity 50 W/K m
Specific heat capacity c 450 J/kg K

periodic boundary conditions were used. The initial roughness

was specified in explicit form. The material parameters used are
listed in Table 1.

2.2. Formation of a quasi-liquid boundary layer

The numerical results show that already within the first

Fig. 2. Initial structure, dimension and loading conditions of the modeled frag-
ment.
setup were identical, i.e. the contacting materials were assumed
to be initially homogeneous. The equations of motion have been
solved using an integration time step of about 1013 s.
An important parameter determining stability of the plastic
deformation processes and significantly affecting the charac-
teristic size of the surface region subjected to severe plastic
deformation is viscosity. The introduction of viscosity is nec-
essary already from a formal consideration of providing stabil-
ity to the calculation procedure. Phenomenologically, viscosity
reflects dissipation processes under strain occurring due to elec-
tron and phonon excitation in a solid. It was assumed in the
numerical model that viscous forces acting between uncon-
nected but contacting automata are proportional to the relative
velocity of motion. At the left and right fragment boundaries,
nanoseconds after onset of a relative tangential motion of the
bodies, the roughness of both surfaces is severely deformed and
fractured, and a dynamic equilibrium in the system is established
at a temporal scale of about 100 ns. A pronounced boundary layer
appears where the processes of deformation, fracture, recon-
struction of connectivity between elements and intensive mixing
take place. The motion in the layer resembles turbulent motion
in liquids (Fig. 3). For this reason we refer to it as a quasi-liquid
layer. Note, however, that this layer is not liquid in terms of
thermodynamics. It remains localized in the vicinity of the ini-
tial friction surface and does not propagate to deeper regions of
the contacting bodies.
The characteristic depth of the layer depends, first and fore-
most, on the effective viscosity of the system of automata. In our
calculations, the layer depth was about 10 nm and corresponded
to experimental values [11]. The particular form of the initial
roughness does not influence the simulation results.

Fig. 3. Instant pictures of a quasi-liquid layer structure for a hypothetical material of ultimate strength 92 MPa: pressure 1 MPa (a) and 26 MPa (b). The sliding
velocity in both cases is 5 m/s. The zone of the quasi-liquid layer is shown by parentheses.
 F. Bucher et al. / Wear 261 (2006) 874884
Fig. 4. Friction force vs. pressure p in the grinding-in stage (first 100 ns) and in
the stationary state. The sliding velocity is 5 m/s.
3. Inuence of loading and material parameters
3.1. Normal pressure
Fig. 4 shows a typical dependence of the average tangen-
tial stress (friction force) on the applied normal pressure. In the
series presented, the value of sliding velocity was kept constant
at 5 m/s. To a first approximation, the friction force increases pro-
portionally to the normal pressure. Thus, Amontons law [24] is
approximately fulfilled. Note that the friction force at the begin-
ning of motion is larger than the stationary value. Dynamics of
friction coefficient can be important for the systems under study
as the contact time of two micron-sized asperities can be compa-
rable with the time of non-stationarity of the friction coefficient.
A detailed study of transition processes is, however, beyond the
scope of the present paper. Below we consider only the station-
ary value of the friction coefficient.
The subject of our analysis is the dependence of the
friction coefficient on material and loading parameters. In
order to study this dependence we performed 36 numeri-
cal simulations where all the parameters were varied (pres-
sure, velocity, density, Youngs modulus, viscosity and ultimate
strength) except for Poissons ratio and the characteristic strains
y2 = 0.015 and c = 0.04 (Fig. 5). When varying the ultimate
strength, the yield strength and limit of elasticity were changed
proportionally.
Fig. 5. Definition of characteristic material parameters in Table 1.
877
Fig. 6. Friction coefficient vs. velocity for pressure 15 MPa for a hypothetical
material of an ultimate strength of 92 MPa.
3.2. Sliding velocity
The velocity dependence of friction coefficient is of special
interest from the standpoint of stability of tribological systems.
A typical dependence obtained from our numerical results for
a normal pressure of 15 MPa is shown in Fig. 6. The increase
in the friction coefficient with the velocity was recorded for
other pressures as well. Note, however, that the coefficient of
static friction was always higher than that of sliding friction.
Thus, the friction coefficient first abruptly decreases and then
monotonously increases with velocity.
3.3. Analytical approximation of friction coefcient
Certain conclusions on the friction coefficient as a function of
material and loading parameters can be made from the analysis
of dimensionality. Indeed, the friction coefficient is a dimen-
sionless quantity and, hence, can depend only on dimensionless
combinations of system parameters. It can be shown that no
dimensionless combination involving viscosity can be made up
from material and loading parameters (E, 0 , , v, p, ). This
implies that the friction coefficient cannot depend either on vis-
cosity or on the quasi-liquid layer depth, which appears to be
roughly proportional to viscosity. The analysis of dimensional-
ity shows that velocity v and density  can enter the relation for
the friction coefficient only as v2 .
Hence it follows that in the general case the friction coef-
ficient may be thought of as a function of three independent
combinations of the parameters (E, 0 , , v, p). Empirical pro-
cessing of the numerical results shows, however, that the number
of variables in the parameter region under study may be further
reduced to two: it appears possible to present the friction coeffi-
cient with sufficient accuracy as a function of the following two
dimensionless parameters:
v2 E pE
1 = and 2 = . (1)
02 02
Thus, changes in the parameters (E, 0 , , v, p, ) for constant 1
and 2 in a set of 10 numerical simulations resulted in statistical
scatter of 3.5%, which supports the hypothesis that the friction
878 F. Bucher et al. / Wear 261 (2006) 874884

coefficient depends solely on the parameters 1 and 2 . Note
that Poissons ratio and breaking strain were kept constant in all
numerical simulations. More generally, the friction coefficient
could also be a function of these dimensionless parameters as
independent variables.
Since we have no phenomenological model defining the form
of the analytical dependence of the friction coefficient on loading
parameters, we approximated the numerical results given as 34
discrete points by the simplest rational function of the form
1 1
= 0 + 1 + 2 , (2)
1 + b1 1 + c2
that qualitatively reflects the main features of the numeri-
cal results. The least squares optimization gives the following
approximation parameter values:
0 = 0.15, 1 = 0.0442, 2 = 0.3243,
b = 0.195 and c = 0.00212. (3)
The root mean square difference between calculated points and
approximating surface is near 9% (Fig. 7).
The numerical results suggest that the friction coefficient
drastically decreases at very low pressures. This dependence
is not physically unexpected: for p 0, the friction coefficient
must vanish. However, this decrease takes place in a small low-
pressure range only. This fact was left out in the graphs given in
Fig. 7. The construction of a unified analytical approximation
for the entire pressure range is a complicated mathematical prob-
lem. For this reason, the points belonging to the low-pressure
range were not taken into account in constructing the approxi-

Fig. 7. Friction coefficient vs. dimensionless parameters 1 and 2 : analytical approximation Eq. (2) and calculated points (a) and other view point of the dependence
in the area of small 1 (b). Lines from point centers show location of points: upper direction for points under the surface, bottom direction for points over the surface.
The length of lines correlates with deviation of points (root mean square difference is 9%). The two-dimensional plot (projection) of the surface on the 1 and 2
plane (c).
 F. Bucher et al. / Wear 261 (2006) 874884
Fig. 8. Friction coefficient vs. dimensionless parameter 2 = pE/02 in the low
velocity limit.
mation in Eq. (2). Therefore, the analytical dependence derived
is applicable only for 2 2. For usual loading conditions in
wheel/rail contact, the parameter 2 is often small and can be
assumed to be zero. In this case, the friction coefficient can be
represented as a function of parameter 2 alone:
2 dimensional rolling contact considering micro-roughness is not
= 0 + for 1 0 (4)
1 + c2
or
0.3243
= 0.150 + . (5)
1 + 0.00212pE/02
The dependence of the friction coefficient on parameter 2 deter-
mined by this relation is shown in Fig. 8.
4. Application to the wheel/rail contact
4.1. Numerical model for wheel/rail contact with rough
surfaces
When wheel and rail with smooth surfaces are brought into
contact under the action of the static wheel load N (normal load),
the area of contact and the pressure distribution are usually cal-
culated with the theory of Hertz. In this case, the area of contact
is elliptical (nominal area of contact). The semi-axes a (in rolling
direction) and b are in the range of 610 mm. If a tangential force
T or a spin moment is transmitted between wheel and rail, there
is always a mean relative velocity in the contact point. The cal-
culation of local stresses as well as the consideration of spin are
possible with numerical programs like CONTACT developed by
Kalker [5]. The resulting tangential forces in longitudinal and
lateral direction can be calculated with sufficient accuracy by
means of approximate analytical solutions [6]. Usually, the fric-
tion coefficient is assumed to be constant in these investigations.
The consideration of rough surfaces (Fig. 9) requires a much
higher numerical effort. With a roughness wavelength of 0.1 mm
and 10 points for every asperity, one needs 1000 points for the
discretization of a single strip of the contact ellipse. The stresses
and deformations can therefore only be calculated by means of
879
Fig. 9. Measured profile of a rough rail surface [15].
special boundary element methods [15,22,25]. In these works,
wheel and rail are assumed to be elastic half-spaces and the fric-
tion coefficient can be an arbitrary function of the coordinates
within the area of contact. Due to the numerical effort, the cal-
culations have been restricted to the two-dimensional model of a
rolling cylinder (line contact) using measured surface profiles of
rail and wheel. A numerical solution of non-steady state three-
possible at present.
4.2. Levels of consideration
As mentioned in Section 1, we distinguish three levels of con-
sideration: macrolevel, microlevel (asperity level) and nanolevel
(submicron level).
4.2.1. Macrolevel
At the macrolevel, we solve the problem of an elastic
wheel/rail contact, where wheel and rail are considered to be per-
fectly elastic bodies bounded by smooth surfaces. The wheel/rail
contact region is known to have an elliptical form with the
axis ratio of about a unit. The typical wheel load for Euro-
pean locomotives is 100 kN. With the wheel radius of 0.5 m, the
mean diameter of the contact region is between 12 and 20 mm
(Hertzian contact). The maximum pressure in the contact cen-
ter is between 500 and 800 MPa. For a rolling velocity of 50 m/s
and creep values up to 10%, we obtain a maximum sliding veloc-
ity of 5 m/s.
4.2.2. Microlevel
To a second approximation, the rough surfaces of wheel and
rail are taken into account. A typical wavelength of the micro-
roughness, to which the assumption of pure elastic material
behaviour on the microlevel is still valid, is 100 m. The calcu-
lation of real contact area and pressure at micro-contacts made
for surfaces with experimentally measured roughness shows that
the contact area ranges from 20 to 60% of the nominal (Hertzian)
contact area [26,22]. The maximum pressures at contacts at the
microlevel vary between 2000 and 5000 MPa (Fig. 10). Note
that the first value already corresponds to rail steel hardness
880 F. Bucher et al. / Wear 261 (2006) 874884

Fig. 11. Temperature-dependent parameters of a wheel steel and a standard

Fig. 10. Local distribution of surface pressure in two-dimensional rough contact, structural steel [16].
normalized with respect to the maximum pressure p0 in the case of smooth
surfaces.
material, the probability distribution has the form shown in
Fig. 12. Considering, to a first approximation, the pressure dis-
(about 3 0 [27]). On the other hand, the surface hardness of tribution to be uniform in the range from 0 to hardness 3 0 , we
wheel and rail can be much higher due to microstructural alter- can average Eq. (5) to get
ations, e.g. the formation of white-etching layers (WEL) on
30
rail surfaces [28]. In any case, the limit of pure elastic material p(p) dp
= 0
30 . (7)
behaviour is reached at the microlevel. This suggests that the
0 p dp
assumption of purely elastic deformation at the level of even
smaller heterogeneities has no physical meaning, since severe The integral in the numerator is proportional to the total friction
plastic deformation processes occur at this low level (submicron force, and that in the denominator to the total normal force;
level). their ratio is the friction coefficient observed at the macrolevel.
The so defined macroscopic friction coefficient is independent
4.2.3. Nanolevel of pressure:
For a better understanding of the processes at the microlevel, 0  2  E

0
we continue further motion in the direction to the submicron = 0.15 + 102 1.6 104 ln 1 + 0.00636 .
E E 0
level in terms of a dynamic model based on movable cellular
automata. In doing so, pressures and velocities obtained at the (8)
microlevel serve as boundary conditions for the nanolevel prob- According to Eq. (2), the dependence of the friction coefficient
lem. on the sliding velocity is given by a simple additional term which
The foregoing estimates of pressure at micro-contacts in com- again is independent of pressure. Assuming the pressure distri-
bination with elastic and strength characteristics of rail steel bution to be uniform, the resulting dependence of the friction
(Fig. 11) show that the dimensionless variables 1 and 2 take coefficient on the material parameters and sliding velocity can
values in the following ranges: be written as
1 = 0 0.25 and 2 = 0 1500. (6) 0  2  E

0

= 0.15 + 102 1.6 104 ln 1 + 0.00636
Since 1 is very small for real contacts, it may be considered to E E 0
be zero. Therefore, the simplified Eqs. (4) and (5) can be used v2 E/02
to approximate the friction coefficient in wheel/rail contacts. + 0.1442 . (9)
1 + 0.195(v2 E/02 )
4.3. Fractality of rail and wheel surfaces and macroscopic If the assumption of uniformly distributed pressure is not valid,
friction coefcient Eq. (5) should be used.

Both the theoretical analysis and direct numerical calcula-
tions show that the probability distribution to find a specified
pressure at a contact between two fractal surfaces becomes the
more uniform, the lower the scale level [21,23]. Thus, at the
microlevel where the peak pressure achieves hardness of the
4.4. Temperature dependence of the friction coefcient
The friction coefficient of the system under study does not
depend explicitly on temperature. Temperature can, therefore,
influence the friction coefficient only by the temperature depen-
 F. Bucher et al. / Wear 261 (2006) 874884
Fig. 12. Distribution function of probability to find a specified pressure at the
wheel/rail contact with real (experimentally measured) roughness (data from
[22]). The distribution function depends on the wavelength at which the Fourier
spectrum of the surface profile is cut off in order to solve the elastic contact
problem. Three distributions correspond to the spectrum cutoff at wavelengths
10, 0.1 and 0.025 mm, respectively. The finer the asperities taken into account the
higher the peak pressure values achieved at the contacts, and the more uniform
the probability distribution in the moderate pressure range. The lower picture
shows pressure distribution at the submicron level examined in this work. To a
first approximation, the probability distribution is considered to be uniform in
the range from zero to hardness.
dence of mechanical parameters. Let us analyze the averaged
friction coefficient Eq. (9). Due to the averaging, it does not
depend on pressure. It is also practically independent of veloc-
ity and depends only on the ratio of strength to Youngs modulus.
As long as this ratio depends on temperature, there will also be
an influence of the temperature on the coefficient of friction. The
strength parameters of steel decrease significantly at high tem-
peratures (Fig. 11) while temperature dependence of Youngs
modulus can be neglected at first glance.
Yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of a wheel steel
do not depend equally on temperature (Fig. 11). For the accu-
rate determination of the friction coefficient as a function of
temperature, MCA simulations at different temperatures should
use the respective values of yield strength and ultimate tensile
strength. In order to avoid this effort, the ratio of strength param-
881
eters has been kept constant for all simulations and we assumed
an averaged linear relation for the temperature dependence of
all strength parameters. Thus, the ultimate tensile strength as a
function of temperature can be written as
 
0 () = 1000 MPa 1 (10)
1250
with in K. (For the investigations of this paper, the zero-point
of temperature has been chosen as the ambient temperature.
Therefore, the temperature always represents the temperature
rise due to the heat supply within the contact patch.)
Now, we have to calculate the contact temperature using an
appropriate model of thermal contact. Concerning the surface
temperature in frictional contact, we also can distinguish differ-
ent scale levels between the average temperature occurring in
the whole nominal area of contact and the peak temperatures
in micro-contacts (asperities). The heat conduction in Hertzian
contact with smooth surfaces can be treated one-dimensionally
which makes possible a fast and efficient calculation of contact
temperature [29].
If the roughness of surfaces is taken into account, the inves-
tigation of temperatures becomes a very complicated numerical
problem [3034]. The results depend on the local pressure at
micro-contacts as well as on their size and distribution. On the
other hand, Archard has already stated that the influence of sur-
face roughness can be neglected in a first approximation, since
. . . in general, the largest temperatures are those deduced for
the whole region rather than those deduced for the smaller indi-
vidual contact areas [35]. This has been confirmed recently by
Vick and Furey [36].
Justified by the statement of Archard, we used an approximate
solution for the average contact temperature based on Hertzian
line contact. It can be written as

a
= 0.426p 0 vsliding (11)
cv0
with the average friction coefficient , maximum Hertzian pres-
sure p0 , sliding velocity vsliding , Hertzian semi-length of contact
area a, thermal conductivity , density , specific heat capacity
c and vehicle speed v0 . As shown in [17] and [29], this increase
of the average temperature at the contact surfaces is in the range
of 200 K for usual operating conditions in wheel/rail contact.
It does not depend on the local pressure distribution at micro-
contacts, but only on global quantities. For typical values of
roughness profile and real area of contact in wheel/rail systems,
the local peak temperatures at micro-contacts are only slightly
higher (1030%) than the values calculated with the assumption
of smooth surfaces [17].
4.5. Discussion of results
The tangential contact problem has been solved for the
parameters given in Table 2. In these calculations, the sliding
velocity was prescribed and the tangential force results from
the integral of tangential stresses in the area of contact. For the
consideration of contact temperature at high creep values, an iter-
ation was required due to the feedback between friction law, tan-
882 F. Bucher et al. / Wear 261 (2006) 874884

Table 2
Operating conditions for the wheel/rail contact
Symbol Value Unit

Normal load per unit length N/b 4000 N/mm

Hertzian semi-length of contact area a 4.70 mm
Maximum Hertzian pressure for smooth surfaces p0 542 MPa
Vehicle speed v0 1040 m/s

gential force, contact temperature and temperature-dependent

ultimate tensile strength. In any case, this iteration converged
within a few steps.
In Fig. 13, the local distribution of the friction coefficient
based on the MCA-simulations is shown. It depends mostly on
the local pressure. Using the approximation Eq. (5), we get

0.4743 for p 0 (12)

Fig. 14. Creep force curves at low creep values, using different models for the
in the areas with low values of pressure. As already mentioned, coefficient of frictionwithout influence of contact temperature.
the approximation is not valid for very small pressures with
2 = pE/02 < 2. Nevertheless, the tangential stresses are not
significantly affected by this error since they are very small any-
way due to the small pressure.
In Figs. 14 and 15, the tangential force is shown as a function
of the creep. Due to the consideration of surface roughness, the
initial slope of the creep force curve is much lower than in the
case of smooth wheel and rail. This effect does not depend on
the friction coefficient, but only on elastic deformation of the
asperities. The decrease of the creep force curve at high creep
values is due to the interaction of temperature-dependent friction
law and contact temperature. For typical operating conditions in
wheel/rail contact, this effect is much more important than the
direct influence of sliding velocity given by the additional term
in Eqs. (8) and (9).
The consideration of a temperature-dependent coefficient of
friction at high creep values was done using average values of
temperature and friction coefficient. Instead of using this simpli-
fied approach, one could also calculate the local distribution of Fig. 15. Creep force curves at high creep values for different vehicle
speedswith influence of contact temperature.

tangential stresses, friction coefficient and surface temperature.

If one wants to predict only the tangential contact force (tractive
force), but not the exact local distribution of tangential stresses,
the above-used approach with average values of friction coeffi-
cent and contact temperature is sufficient. Since the calculation
of the tangential force resulting from exact tangential stresses is
also a sort of averaging, the results are virtually equal.

5. Conclusions

The results of creep force calculations show the signifi-

Fig. 13. Local distribution of the coefficient of friction as a function of the local
pressure, according to Eq. (5)without influence of contact temperature.
cant influence of the friction law and the surface roughness
(Figs. 14 and 15). Both effects are based on physical models.
Therefore, they are more realistic than pure empirical correction
factors. Qualitatively, the results agree well with measurements.
The major result of this work is expressed by Eq. (2) determin-
ing the dependence of the friction coefficient at the submicron
 F. Bucher et al. / Wear 261 (2006) 874884
level on two dimensionless arguments. These arguments, in turn,
depend on the material (density, strength and Youngs modu-
lus) and loading (pressure and sliding velocity) parameters. We
have found that the friction coefficient is strongly influenced
by the dynamic processes in surface nanolayers that are formed
and sustained at the contact region within the entire period of
relative motion of contacting solids. The fact that the friction
coefficient depends only on two independent arguments 1 and
2 (Eq. (1)) and not on three independent variables, does not
follow from the analysis of dimensionality and has come out
as an unexpected empirical fact requiring theoretical interpreta-
tion.
It should be noted that the dependence given in Eq. (2) was
found for a number of simplifying assumptions. The major
assumptions have been:
Eq. (2) is valid only within 2 2 1800. The lower limit of
this range gives the minimum values of 2 used for deriving
Eq. (2), and the higher limit determines the studied range
of values (note, however, that for 2 = 1800 there was only
one calculation; the most completely studied region is for
2 620).
Poissons ratio was taken to be 0.3, and breaking strain under
active loading 4% (Table 1). These values are typical of many
metals.
Tribological systems whose linear dimension is much smaller
than the elastic coherence length were examined. This
assumption is reasonably well fulfilled for contacts of interest
with dimension of about 10 mm in the case of metals.
The contacting materials were assumed to be homogeneous.
Hence all elements of the medium and their strength and elas-
tic characteristics were identical. Evidently, this assumption
is not fulfilled for many alloys and steels. We suggest that
due to the presence of a dynamic boundary layer, the effect of
structural heterogeneities is averaged. However, further inves-
tigation into the subject is required.
Another important result is concerned with a macroscopic
friction coefficient observed at the contact of surfaces with a
random (fractal) roughness. We brought forward arguments in
support of the fact that in this case, the probability of finding
a specified pressure at the contact is (approximately) uniformly
distributed in the range from zero to hardness of material. Aver-
aging the friction coefficient over this distribution gives the fric-
tion coefficient depending on the material strength to Youngs
modulus ratio 0 /E and 1 = v2 E/02 alone.
Due to the influence of material properties on the friction
coefficient, the simulation results are only as good as the knowl-
edge of material behaviour. This should be taken into account
especially in the case of temperature dependence. In any case,
the interaction of a temperature-dependent friction law and the
contact temperature induced by friction is a convincing physical
explanation for the decrease of creep force curves at high creep
values.
Undoubtedly, a general qualitative conclusion is the fact that
dynamic processes of plastic deformation and fracture at the
nanolevel are of great importance. In our opinion, these pro-
883
cesses are the key to understanding mechanisms of dry friction
in real tribological systems.
Acknowledgements
One of the authors (V.L.P.) is grateful to O. Dudko for dis-
cussions and comments. Financial support from the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG: German Research Council) and
the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is acknowl-
edged.
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