Abstract
Geometric irregularities on rail surfaces increase dynamic forces in wheel-rail contact, causing damage and wear to track and vehicle components. Multi-body simulation is a practical tool for optimizing the rail-wheel system. The choice of excitation type and the multi-body model significantly impact the accuracy of the results and computational efficiency. Rigid-body models with moving sleepers are commonly used in the dynamic analysis of railway vehicles. On the other hand, flexible multi-body models with finite element (FE) rails, incorporate track flexibility. This study shows that multi-body models with FE components offer advantages in capturing the dynamic behaviour of vehicles on realistic tracks, especially when the effects of short-wave track irregularities are taken into account, but the computational effort increases significantly. For the investigation of ballast damage, a rigid body model with multiple masses offers a good compromise between computational effort and the quality of results. It covers a frequency range up to 150 Hz and represents the loads in what is known as the P2 force range well with 2% to 8% deviations from the measured values. For higher frequencies, flexible FE bodies are required that can cover frequencies up to 1000 Hz and primarily lead to damage to the rail surface.
Published Version
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