Abstract
The degradations generated by the couple wheel/rail in contact according to a curve and against curve are the result of themechanical behaviour of the wheel/rail contact. This approach consists in modelling the mechanical behaviour in order topredict the intensity of the damage and areas which could be the seats of high concentrations. In the curved line, the degradationof the wheel is strongly implied because of an unfavourable loading state. The results presented show the evolution of thedisplacement and stress fields as well as the states of the contact elements (slip, adherence etc.) at the static state. The wheel/railcontact has involved the Hertz theory. The work is modelled by the finite element method as implemented in the computercode of the ANSYS software. The results obtained are in good agreement with the operating conditions as well as the states ofthe couple loading. This study also serves to establish a preventive or conditional maintenance program in order to track spotareas identified by the predictive numerical model.