Impact of non-elliptic contact modelling in wheel wear simulation

Abstract

Advances in simulation of railway wheel wear in the sense of material removal have drawn the attention to the importance of wheel–rail contact modelling. As a further step of enhancing the used simulation procedure in direction of increased generality and reduced need for application-dependent calibration, the focus of this investigation is the influence of non-elliptic contact models on the wheel wear rate and profile shape. To facilitate evaluation the semi-Hertzian contact procedure Stripes, developed by INRETS in France, has been implemented. To investigate the capabilities of Stripes to assess the contact area and pressure, shape comparisons have been made with other numerical methods for a set of wheel–rail contact situations. The referenced results are based on the linear elastic half-space assumption, elastic finite element analysis, and elastic–plastic finite element analysis. For reference also the elliptic contact area according to Hertz is shown as given by the contact data table of the multi-body simulation code. After exploring the properties of the Stripes procedure with respect to contact area estimation and pressure distribution, the focus is moved to the influence on wear rate, being the principal objective of this investigation. First the wear distribution over the contact patch is studied and compared to results using the elliptic model from the MBS code Gensys and the non-elliptic approach with Kalker's code Contact. Finally the evolution of the wheel profile is simulated for a few typical cases. This investigation of wear distributions over non-elliptic patches under different operating conditions indicates significant differences compared to both Contact and the applied Hertzian approach. The expansion from single contact occasions to complete simulations indicates comparable material removal rates but relocation towards the flange side. This tendency is apparent in all of the cases shown, however limited to initial wear in tangent run or reasonably mild curve negotiation.