Wheel slide protection

Wheel slide protection and wheel slip protection are railway terms used to describe automatic systems used to detect and prevent wheel-slide during braking or wheel-slip during acceleration. This is analogous to ABS and traction control systems used on motor vehicles. It is particularly important in slippery rail conditions.

Sanding

Sanding is one method of reducing wheel slide. Locomotives have sandboxes which can deliver sand or Sandite to the rails in front of the wheels. In modern diesel locomotives there is a button that the driver will press to start sanding. This button is tied to a computer system that determines the train's direction and where the sand should be applied: either forward or aft of the trucks. In older locomotives, though, there was a manual lever attached to a valve that had three positions: Off, Forward, and Aft. The engineer could flip this lever to dump sand in correspondence with the train's movement.

Automatic control systems

Wheel Slide Protection (WSP) equipment is generally fitted to passenger trains to manage the behaviour of wheel sets in “low adhesion” (reduced wheel/rail friction) conditions. It is used when braking, and may be considered analogous to anti-lock braking (ABS) for cars. The system can also be used to control (or provide an input to) the traction system to control wheel spin when applying power in low adhesion conditions.

“Low adhesion” at the rail potentially causes damage to wheels and the rails. Typically, low adhesion conditions are associated with environmental causes arising from seasonal leaf fall, or industrial pollution. Occasionally the cause can be another less obvious factor such as light oxidation of the railhead or even swarms of insects.

Wheel slide and braking

When a train is braking, the low adhesion manifests as wheel slip where the wheelset is rotating at a lower velocity (speed) that the forward speed of the train. The most extreme example of this is where the wheel stops rotating altogether (wheel slide) while the train is still moving and can result in a “wheel flat” caused by the softer wheel steel being abraded away by the harder rail steel.

However, the wheelset does not need to lock up completely in order for damage to be caused. If the slide is significant, heat can build up in the contact patch between wheel and rail sufficiently to permanently modify the crystalline structure of the wheel's steel. The steel becomes more brittle (martensite) which leads to cavities forming in the wheel. Wheel flats on railway vehicles are very evident by their characteristic “bang-bang” in time with the speed of the train. It is normally necessary to use a wheel lathe to remove a layer of wheel tread caused by a severe flat or cavity, which reduces the life of the wheel and is a major operating cost to the rail industry.

Wheel slide and traction

In traction, low adhesion may cause a wheelset to accelerate more quickly than the train (wheel spin) to the point where it can damage the train propulsion system or result in damage to the wheel and rail (rail burn).

Controlled wheel slip

WSP is generally fitted as standard to new fleets of multiple unit trains which tend to have fewer braked axles than conventional locomotive and coach formations. The primary function of the WSP is to protect the wheel from damage associated with sliding when braking or spinning in traction. However, within the rail industry it is also recognised that in braking mode, a WSP system can improve the ability of a train to stop in poor adhesion conditions. This improvement is achieved by regulation of the wheelset velocity in a controlled manner so that it maintains a relatively consistent level of slip. The controlled slip has the effect of conditioning the contamination layer on the rail (scrubbing action) thereby improving the level of friction and enhancing the ability of the train to stop. Controlled wheel slip can also have a limited cleaning action on the rail head along the length of a train. This tends to result in the vehicles at the rear having more grip than those at the front.

Microprocessor control

Modern WSP systems are microprocessor controlled and employ two stage valves that permit fine control over the air pressure in the brake cylinders. This is essential to be able to capture and control a sliding wheel and to minimise the amount of air resource used by the WSP. WSP systems are now commonly being integrated into the brake controller equipment and frequently have to interface with electric brake systems (dynamic braking) to “blend” the brake effort provided by the friction and dynamic braking systems. Examples of this kind of equipment are manufactured by Knorr Bremse (EP compact, EP2002) Faiveley Transport (EPAC) and POLI Wabtec (ATHENA).

Manufacturers

Manufacturers of WSP equipment include Faiveley Transport, Knorr-Bremse, Wabtec, DAKO, KES & Co GmbH, Mitsubishi, Siemens and Selectron Systems AG.

Testing

Demonstrating the improvement provided by a WSP system is very difficult as the naturally occurring low adhesion condition occurring at the rail can be difficult to re-create in a test track environment.

Track testing

For track testing, a detergent based solution has historically been used to provide low adhesion test conditions. European and international standards often refer to this test method (BS-EN 15595, UIC 541-05). In the UK, British Rail Research adopted two approaches including a laboratory simulation method to all WSP approvals from around 1992, and track testing using carefully conditioned paper tape adhered to the railhead. The paper tape method used in the UK is believed to offer a realistic representation of the challenging very low adhesion conditions encountered during the autumn leaf fall. With an increase in the privatisation of railways in Europe, track testing has become very expensive to organise and to conduct. As a consequence, simulation based testing is rapidly becoming more popular with WSP manufacturers and national bodies.

Simulation testing

Simulation testing employs a computer representation of the train and the track conditions, and signals are provided to the WSP system that effectively deceive it into thinking it is fitted to an actual train. Most of the WSP manufacturers have some simulation capability and there are also facilities available from national bodies or independent testing facilities such as Deutsche Bahn (DB Germany), Ferrovie dello Stato (FS Italy), and DeltaRail Group (formally BR research) (UK and Ireland).