Numerical and experimental study of wheel-rail impact vibration and noise generated at an insulated rail joint

Abstract

As essential track components for rail connections and signal transmission and control, insulated rail joints (IRJs) have been widely used in traditional and high-speed railways. However, the IRJ is considered as one of the weakest parts of railway track structures due to the significant discontinuities in stiffness and geometry. When a train runs over an IRJ, a wheel-rail impact occurs and it increases with train speed. The impact consequently leads to vibration and noise and accelerates track deterioration in the vicinity of the IRJ. This paper establishes an explicit finite element wheel-IRJ dynamic interaction model to simulate highfrequency impact vibration and noise generated at a typical IRJ in the Dutch railway network, and validates the model against a comprehensive hammer test and a pass-by measurement. Good agreements between the simulation and measurements indicate that the proposed model can effectively reproduce high-frequency impact vibration and noise up to 10 kHz. This paper also connects the dominant frequencies of wheel-IRJ impact vibration and noise with the dynamic behaviour of the target IRJ, which may contribute to the mitigation of impact vibration and noise at IRJs as well as to train-borne detection of deterioration types of IRJs.

Numerical study of wheel-rail impact contact solutions at an insulated rail joint

“…A 3D explicit FE wheel-IRJ dynamic interaction model was established in this study to simulate the wheel-rail impact at a typical IRJ in the Dutch railway network. Detailed descriptions of the model can be found in [1] . Information on the target IRJ and FE model relevant to calculating the transient solutions of wheel-IRJ impact contact are given here.…”

“…Because the explicit FEM fully couples the calculation of wheel/rail dynamic responses with the calculation of wheel-rail contact, the validity of the transient impact contact solutions simulated in this paper may be confirmed by separately validating the quasi-steady contact solutions and wheel/rail dynamic responses. Quasi-static frictional rolling contact solutions calculated by the explicit FEM including contact area, pressure, surface shear stress and micro-slip have been shown to be accurate via comparisons with Hertzian and CONTACT solutions [23,24] , whereas the simulated structural dynamic responses to wheel-IRJ impact have been validated by a comprehensive field measurement in [1] . In addition, by presenting the rail surface vibrating velocities calculated at consecutive time steps, regular wave patterns were observed in this study, which provide more evidence for the reliability of the results.…”

“…A recent paper [1] established an explicit finite element (FE) wheelinsulated rail joint (IRJ) dynamic interaction model to calculate the high-frequency impact vibration and noise generated by a typical IRJ in the Dutch railway network. The dynamic behavior of the wheel-IRJ system reproduced by the explicit FE model was validated against a comprehensive hammer test and a pass-by measurement.…”

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a b s t r a c tThis paper presents an analysis of the transient contact solutions of wheel-rail frictional rolling impacts calculated by an explicit finite element model of the wheel-insulated rail joint (IRJ) dynamic interaction. The ability of the model to simulate the dynamic behavior of an IRJ has been validated against a comprehensive field measurement in a recent paper (Yang et al, 2018). In addition to the measured railhead geometry and bi-linear elastoplastic material model used in Yang et al (2018), this study adopts a nominal railhead geometry and an elastic material model for the simulations to provide an overall understanding of the transient contact behavior of wheel-IRJ impacts.

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“…The ability of the model to simulate the dynamic behavior of an IRJ has been validated against a comprehensive field measurement in a recent paper (Yang et al, 2018). In addition to the measured railhead geometry and bi-linear elastoplastic material model used in Yang et al (2018), this study adopts a nominal railhead geometry and an elastic material model for the simulations to provide an overall understanding of the transient contact behavior of wheel-IRJ impacts. Each simulation calculates the evolution of the contact patch area, stress magnitude and direction, micro-slip distribution, and railhead nodal vibration velocity in the vicinity of the joint during the wheel-IRJ impacts.…”