Thermal simulation of a pin on a rotating cylinder jacket system

In this paper specimen level measurements and finite element simulations are introduced in order to study the thermal behaviour of a pin and wheel sliding contact configuration. The pin-like specimen is processed from cast iron and models the local contact of a railway brake block and wheel tire. The sliding contact is treated in the framework of a 3 dimensional problem in order to achieve reliable results. The paper also treats with the heat partition problem by distributed heat source and moving heat source models. The results are compared to measured datas and show that the classical heat partition approach is not valid for the friction pair examined i.e. the contact. However authors determine the exact heat partition ratio by an iterative approach and give explanations on the experienced temperature differences. © Periodica Polytechnica 2012.