Based on the functional requirements of the surface of the railway wheel，the surface of railway wheel was delimited as an antiwear functional area,a reasonable gradient composite structure was designed in the joint surface between antiwear area and substrate.The influence of gradient composite structure on the mechanical properties of the wheel was analyzed.Based on the Hertz contact theory,wheel/rail thermalstructural coupling model was established by using ANSYS,the stress distributions of wheel/rail under temperature load and static contact was analyzed.The results show that compared with the nongraded structure,the gradient composite structure can reduce the equivalent stress mutation in the joint surface between the antiwear area of wheel and the substrate,and change the characteristics of stress distribution of wheel to prevent the antiwear area of wheel from falling off under the action of thermalstructural coupling.Based on the specific working conditions in this paper,the conclusion is drawn that when the thickness of antiwear area is 1.0 mm,the equivalent stresses mutations of the wheel can be effectively reduced by adopting the linear gradient composite structure with thickness of 2.0 mm in the joint surface between antiwear area and substrate and 8 interlayers.