Prediction of wheel and rail profile wear on complex railway networks

Sci. China Technol. Sci.

Liu

Zhai

et al. 2014

Characteristics of wheel-rail dynamic interaction due to the rail corrugation in a high-speed railway are analyzed based on the theory of vehicle-track coupled dynamics in this paper. Influences of the corrugation wavelength and depth on the wheel-rail dynamic performance are investigated. The results show that, under the excitation of a measured rail corrugation, the wheel-rail dynamic interaction of high-speed railway is enhanced obviously, and the high-frequency dynamic force between wheel and rail is generated, which has an obvious impact on the vibrations of the wheelset and rail, and little effect on the vibration of the frame and carbody. If the corrugation wavelength is shorter than the sensitive wavelength, the wheel-rail vertical force will increase with the growth of the corrugation wavelength, otherwise, it will decrease. However, the wheel-rail vertical force keeps increasing with the growth of corrugation depth. Furthermore, if the corrugation wavelength is shorter than the sensitive wavelength, the wheel-rail vertical force will increase with the decrease of the running speed, otherwise, it will decrease. It is also found that the critical wavelength of corrugation increases with the growth of the corrugation depth and the running speed, and the critical depth of corrugation is nonlinearly related to the sensitive wavelength. dynamic interaction, rail corrugation, high-speed railway, critical wavelength, critical depth, sensitive wavelength Citation:Wang K Y, Liu P F, Zhai W M, et al. Wheel/rail dynamic interaction due to excitation of rail corrugation in high-speed railway. Sci China Tech Sci, 2015, 58: 226235,

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wheel/rail dynamic interaction due to excitation of rail corrugation in high-speed railway

Sci. China Technol. Sci.

Liu

Zhai

et al. 2014

“…Innocenti et al. 24 developed a wheel and rail profile evolution model for complex railway networks and used a statistical approach for the railway track description. Wu et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical prediction of rail wear development in high-speed railway turnouts

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F:

2020

Wear of rails in turnouts is a common problem during the operation of high-speed railways. It can seriously affect the running safety of trains and the service lives of wheels and turnout rails. In this study, a numerical prediction model for rail wear development in high-speed railway turnouts was established. According to the material wear theory developed by Archard, the wear depth distribution in the wheel–rail contact patch was calculated based on a vehicle–turnout coupling dynamics simulation and wheel–rail rolling contact analysis. For the dynamics model, various components of the vehicle and complex nonlinear interactions between the components were simulated in detail to guarantee consistency with reality. The combination relationship of the switch and stock rails and the irregular and variable cross-sections of the rails in the switch panel of the turnout were considered. Spatial interpolation was used to achieve three-dimensional transitions between adjacent irregular cross-sections to model the compromised rails in the turnout. In addition, the stiffness and damping characteristics of the track in the turnout zone were taken into account. The rail wear rates for every characteristic section of the switch panel were calculated by the superposition model for rail profile wear. An adaptive-step algorithm was adopted in the iterative computations to update the rail profiles for every characteristic section position, which could reduce the cumulative errors and effectively improve the stability and reliability of the numerical model. Finally, case studies were conducted to investigate the wear developments of the switch and stock rails of high-speed turnouts using the developed model. In addition, the rail wear status of turnouts in the Shanghai–Nanjing high-speed railway was measured. The numerical prediction results are consistent with those of the actual situations in the field, verifying the rationality of the established model. This work shows the potential for guiding the maintenance and optimal design of turnouts and improving the understanding of the formation mechanism and influencing factors of rail wear in turnouts.

“…Innocenti et al. 15 presented a model for evaluating wheel and rail profile evolution due to wear developed for complex railway networks. In order to achieve general significant accuracy results in reasonable computational effort, a suitable statistical approach for the railway track description was used, aimed at studying complex railway lines.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical prediction of the development of rail wear on high-speed railways

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F:

Gao

2019

In this paper, a numerical prediction model was established to investigate the development of rail wear on high-speed railways, and a corresponding program was written using Matlab. According to Archard’s material wear theory, the wear depth distribution in the wheel–rail contact patch and along the rail profile was calculated based on a simulation of vehicle–track dynamics and a wheel–rail rolling contact analysis. In the dynamics model, various structural components and the complex nonlinear interactions between components were precisely simulated to ensure consistency with reality. Simulations were then conducted for every possible load case, and dimensionless weight factors were introduced to model the diverse operating conditions of a high-speed railway. An adaptive step algorithm was adopted to iteratively update the rail profile and reduce cumulative deviation or errors, improving the stability and reliability of the numerical model. Finally, a case study was conducted to investigate the development of wear in different track sections on a high-speed railway using the developed model. The results indicated that in the circular curve and transition sections, the side wear of the outer rail was obvious, and the wear of the inner rail was relatively smaller and mostly distributed in the middle of the railhead. The wear of the outer rail was more severe in the circular curve section compared to that in the transition sections. The closer to the rail shoulder, the greater the difference between the wear in the circular curve section and that in the transition section. In the tangent section, the wear of both rails was similarly distributed in the middle of the railhead and far less severe than in either the circular curve or transition sections. The agreement between the calculated results and field observations verified the rationality of the established rail wear model, which shows promise for improving the maintenance planning of high-speed railways and furthering the understanding of the rail wear processes.