Optimisation of Wheels/Blocks - Study of ways to preselect composite brake blocks based on the wear to wheels and exceptional thermal stresses they cause

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of characterising the interaction between wheel and brake block by means of mechanical and physical-chemical testing, with a view to minimising wheel wear and optimising the behaviour of the wheel/block pairing during a braking incident.

To this end, new brake blocks and brake blocks which had undergone various braking cycles were tested using various methods (abrasion resistance, roughness measurements, microscopy, etc.).

The various laboratory investigations of mechanical and physical-chemical aspects failed to produce any test protocols able to help preselect composite brake blocks on the basis of the wear caused to wheels in service, or to help ascertain the thermo-mechanical behaviour of composite brake blocks following a braking incident in service.