The transient response of high-speed wheel/rail rolling contact on “roaring rails” corrugation

Abstract

A high-speed wheel/rail finite element model is developed to focus on the non-steady-state rolling contact. The wheel/rail contact is solved based on the surface-to-surface contact algorithm, and the explicit finite element method is used to simulate the dynamic high-speed wheel/rail rolling contact. Considering the track–vehicle coupling system dynamics and the wheel/rail geometric nonlinearities, the wheel/rail contact on the short wave rail corrugation under the high-frequency vibration and the influence of train passing frequency on the track–vehicle system dynamics are studied. The explicit finite element method can be used to simulate the non-steady-state rolling contact process of the high-speed wheel/rail. After the initial load condition, the wheel/rail contact state tends to be stable in a short period of time. The short wave corrugation causes the high-frequency vibration of the track–vehicle system; the slightly advanced phase of the wheel/rail contact force promotes the development of rail corrugation in the rolling direction. When the train passing frequency is close to the rail pinned–pinned frequency, the pinned–pinned resonance occurs. The overall vibration near the fastening is relatively large and accelerates the damage of components. The longitudinal force is clearly affected by the traction torque with a periodic wheel/rail stick-slip vibration. The pinned–pinned resonance will promote the sliding wear at the wave trough near the fastening and it will become severe with the increase of the traction.