Surface Damage Evaluation for Railway Wheel Using Electro-magnetic Field Image

The surface of railway wheels running on rails is subject to damage due to rail and frictional wear, damage from wheel tread and flange wear caused by curved track operations, and damage from flats and concave wear due to braking friction heat from brake shoes. Although the surface of wheels is regularly reprofiled through periodic grinding cycles, damage occurring to the wheel surface during operation can lead to deteriorated ride quality and potential failure due to crack propagation. In domestic railway components technical standards, wheel integrity is mandated to be demonstrated through non-destructive testing. To prevent and detect failures caused by damage occurring on railway wheels, it is necessary to develop methods that could detect and evaluate surface damage. The present study investigated a method for detecting and evaluating surface damage on railway wheels using electromagnetic imaging. Results demonstrated that defects with a length of 10 mm, a width of 0.8 to 1.0 mm, and a depth of 0.2 to 1.0 mm could be adequately detected using electromagnetic scan images.