Force required to turn wheel with eighty tonne load 1

[Pegasus5]

I'm sure this is a really easy question for you guys. I have a Cast Iron wheel of 500mm diameter running on steel rails. Total dead weight is eighty tonnes what force is required to rotate the axel to move this load. What is the formula for this calculation?

 

[MikeHalloran]

What's required to rotate the axle is a torque, not a force.

And, given rolling element bearings, it probably depends more on the local grade of the rail and the eccentricity of the wheel than on anything else.

I.e., for imperfect parts, it's an inclined plane problem, but it may be hard to find the geometry of the plane.

For perfect parts, there are equations here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_friction

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA