Numerical algorithm for predicting wheel flange wear in trams – Validation in a curved track

Abstract

In tram operations, flange wear is predominant due to the low-radius curves and inappropriate technical conditions of the infrastructure; hence, investigations should be focused on the interaction between the wheel flange and the rail gauge corner. Moreover, the calculation methods based on the Hertzian model (elliptic contact patch) provide less accurate results due to the contact occurrence in the wheel flange region. This paper presents a methodology of a finite element method to predict the tram wheel wear in complex motions. The new procedure is based on the Abaqus software and several other sub-procedures written in Python and Fortran. Multibody simulations were used to determine the wheel–rail alignment. In this method, accuracy was chosen at the expense of the computational effort. The main steps are: preparation of models and ride scenarios, multibody simulation for calculating the wheel–rail alignment for different track scenarios and multiple runs of finite element method analysis to determine the wear magnitude. The proposed methodology presents a good agreement with the measurements and can be considered as guidelines for a proper configuration of the flange-designing experimental setup where the influence of the technical conditions of the infrastructure should be introduced adequately.

Recognition of pick wear condition based on Grey-Markov chain model

“…Similarly, these theoretical methods are also applicable to pick wear. (Shen et al, 2020;Ouafik, 2020;Shadfar and Molatefi, 2017;Łuczak et al, 2022).…”

Analysis and prediction of double-carriage train wheel wear based on SIMPACK and neural networks

“…Ma et al 15 proposed a novel modeling strategy: 3D explicit finite element analysis was associated with 2D geometrical contact analysis and an adaptive mesh refinement technique, which was able to achieve a good balance between accuracy and calculation efficiency. Luczak et al 16 established a new wear model that could imitate complex wheel motion based on the finite element method. However, the application of this model was limited by its long computation time.…”