Systematical Analysis of Rail Corrugation in Urban Rail Transit

Abstract

Abstract Rail corrugation is an adulatory wear which is similar to wave in shapes that can be observed on the rail rolling surface along the longitudinal direction after the rail is put into use. In this paper, a vehicle-track coupled finite element model is established to analyze the reason of rail corrugation systematically in urban rail transit. The content of the analysis includes the wheel/rail vertical and horizontal dynamic forces, vertical and horizontal displacement of rail, wear power, derail coefficient, horizontal creep force and so on. And the preliminary conclusions are as follows:(1)In straight and crooked track, the vertical force and displacement of rail remains. However, force and displacement in horizontal direction vary much, and they vary much more obviously in straight track than in crooked track. It turns out that the reason why rail corrugation occurs more easily in crooked track is possibly related to the wheel/rail horizontal dynamic forces. (2) Wear power and horizontal creep force computed in crooked track is obviously larger and more stable than those computed in the straight track. It shows that the two computed value can be used as judgment targets of rail corrugation. (3) Derail coefficient which is suddenly becoming large at TS and CS indicates that positions whose geometry changes make influence on the safe operation of trains. So this should be paid attention.