Combined Nodal and Non-Conformal Contact Approach for the Analysis of Turnout Negotiations of Multibody Railroad Vehicles

Abstract

In this investigation, a numerical procedure that can be used for solving complex wheel/rail contact problems in turnout is proposed. In particular, a combined nodal and non-conformal contact approach is developed such that significant jumps in contact points are detected using the nodal search, while the exact location of contact point is then determined with continuous surface parameterizations using non-conformal contact equations. With this combined nodal and non-conformal contact approach for the contact geometry analysis of vehicle/turnout interactions, multiple look-up contact tables can be generated in an efficient way without losing accuracy. Since detailed contact search is performed offline to obtain look-up contact tables, significant changes in contact points in turnout can be efficiently predicted online with tabular data to be interpolated in a standard way. Several numerical examples are presented in order to demonstrate the use of the numerical procedure developed in this investigation.