Tribological Studies on Railway Transport in China

The current situation of friction and wear in the field of Chinese's railway transport is introduced. According to the census report of Chinese's railway, the cost for the maintenance and replacement of the main friction pairs had used more than 1300 million US dollars per annum. Although the applications of tribological knowledge are still limited, more than 760 million US dollars were saved per annum. Recently, the high-speed railway was obtained a very rapid advance in China. The tribological fundamental research on railway also gained high attention by the government. Tribological studies on railway presently face unprecedented challenges and opportunities. The current main research is focused on wear of wheel-track, wear of pantograph-OCS (overhead contact system) with high current, wear of brake disc-block, fretting of close-fitting components and friction noise came from wheel-track and pantograph-OCS systems.