What happens when the wheels of trains interact with viscous liquids deposited on the track? The answer to this question can help us understand how such industrial liquids can prevent track wear and noise.
Doctoral student, Hatef Rahmani, under the guidance of Dr. Sheldon Green, Dr. Boris Stoeber, and Dr. Neil J. Balmforth (UBC Math), recently published their findings of the interaction between a cylinder rolling over a pool of viscous liquid in the prestigious Journal of Fluid Mechanics. To answer these questions, they conducted multiple experiments to determine the fluid behavior when it comes in contact with a cylinder, and developed a corresponding theory that predicts the behavior to within 10%.
This problem has potential uses in a variety of cases, but this study primarily focused on the possibilities involved in rail transport, where viscous fluid is applied to the track to prevent wear on the rails and train wheels. Future work will look at the impacts of wheel shape and the behavior of non-Newtonian fluids, to further investigate the use-case of rail transportation.
Their full article, “Lubricated Rolling over a Pool” from the March Issue of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics is available digitally at: https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2021.1100.