Engineering Commons^™

Heat Generation In The Railroad Bearing Thermoplastic Elastomer Suspension Element, Oscar O. Rodriguez, Juan Carbone, Arturo A. Fuentes, Robert E. Jones, Constantine Tarawneh

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The main purpose of this ongoing study is to investigate the effect of heat generation within a railroad thermoplastic elastomer suspension element on the thermal behavior of the railroad bearing assembly. Specifically, the purpose of this project is to quantify the heat generated by cyclic loading of the elastomer suspension element as a function of load amplitude, loading frequency, and operating temperature. The contribution of the elastomer pad to the system energy balance is modeled using data from dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) of the specific materials in use for that part. DMA is a technique that is commonly used to …