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

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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.