On the Polygonal Wear Evolution of Heavy-Haul Locomotive Wheels due to Wheel/Rail Flexibility and Its Mitigation Measures

Wheel polygonal wear can immensely worsen wheel/rail interactions and vibration performances of the train and track,and ultimately,lead to the shortening of service life of railway components.At present,wheel/rail medium-or high-frequency frictional interactions are perceived as an essential reason of the high-order polygonal wear of railway wheels,which are potentially resulted by the flexible deformations of the train/track system or other external excitations.In this work,the effect of wheel/rail flexibility on polygonal wear evolution of heavy-haul locomotive wheels is explored with aid of the long-term wheel polygonal wear evolution simulations,in which different flexible modeling of the heavy-haul wheel/rail coupled system is implemented.Further,the mitigation measures for the polygonal wear of heavy-haul locomotive wheels are discussed.The results point out that the evolution of polygonal wear of heavy-haul locomotive wheels can be veritably simulated with consideration of the flexible effect of both wheelset and rails.Execution of mixed-line operation of heavy-haul trains and application of multicut wheel re-profiling can effectively reduce the development of wheel polygonal wear.This research can provide a deep-going understanding of polygonal wear evolution mechanism of heavy-haul locomotive wheels and its mitigation measures.

Integration of bio-inspired limb-like structure damping into motor suspension of high-speed trains to enhance bogie hunting stability

Hunting stability is an important performance criterion in railway vehicles.This study proposes an incorporation of a bio-inspired limb-like structure(LLS)-based nonlinear damping into the motor suspension system for traction units to improve the nonlinear critical speed and hunting stability of high-speed trains(HSTs).Initially,a vibration transmission analysis is conducted on a HST vehicle and a metro vehicle that suffered from hunting motion to explore the effect of different motor suspension systems from on-track tests.Subsequently,a simplified lateral dynamics model of an HST bogie is established to investigate the influence of the motor suspension on the bogie hunting behavior.The bifurcation analysis is applied to optimize the motor suspension parameters for high critical speed.Then,the nonlinear damping of the bio-inspired LLS,which has a positive correlation with the relative displacement,can further improve the modal damping of hunting motion and nonlinear critical speed compared with the linear motor suspension system.Furthermore,a comprehensive numerical model of a high-speed train,considering all nonlinearities,is established to investigate the influence of different types of motor suspension.The simulation results are well consistent with the theoretical analysis.The benefits of employing nonlinear damping of the bio-inspired LLS into the motor suspension of HSTs to enhance bogie hunting stability are thoroughly validated.

Train–track coupled dynamics analysis:system spatial variation on geometry,physics and mechanics

This paper aims to clarify the influence of system spatial variability on train–track interaction from perspectives of stochastic analysis and statistics.Considering the spatial randomness of system properties in geometry,physics and mechanics,the primary work is therefore simulating the uncertainties realistically,representatively and efficiently.With regard to the track irregularity simulation,a model is newly developed to obtain random sample sets of track irregularities by transforming its power spectral density function into the equivalent track quality index for representation based on the discrete Parseval theorem,where the correlation between various types of track irregularities is accounted for.To statistically clarify the uncertainty of track properties in physics and mechanics in space,a model combining discrete element method and finite element method is developed to obtain the spatially varied track parametric characteristics,e.g.track stiffness and density,through which the highly expensive experiments in situ can be avoided.Finally a train–track stochastic analysis model is formulated by integrating the system uncertainties into the dynamics model.Numerical examples have validated the accuracy and efficiency of this model and illustrated the effects of system spatial variability on train–track vibrations comprehensively.

Discrete element modelling of railway ballast performance considering particle shape and rolling resistance

To simulate ballast performance accurately and efficiently,the input in discrete element models should be carefully selected,including the contact model and applied particle shape.To study the effects of the contact model and applied particle shape on the ballast performance(shear strength and deformation),the direct shear test(DST)model and the large-scale process simulation test(LPST)model were developed on the basis of two types of contact models,namely the rolling resistance linear(RRL)model and the linear contact(LC)model.Particle shapes are differentiated by clumps.A clump is a sphere assembly for one ballast particle.The results show that compared with the typical LC model,the RRL method is more efficient and realistic to predict shear strength results of ballast assemblies in DSTs.In addition,the RRL contact model can also provide accurate vertical and lateral ballast deformation under the cyclic loading in LPSTs.

Vehicle–track–tunnel dynamic interaction:a finite/infinite element modelling method

The aim of this study is to develop coupled matrix formulations to characterize the dynamic interaction between the vehicle,track,and tunnel.The vehicle–track coupled system is established in light of vehicle–track coupled dynamics theory.The physical characteristics and mechanical behavior of tunnel segments and rings are modeled by the finite element method,while the soil layers of the vehicle–track–tunnel(VTT)system are modeled as an assemblage of 3-D mapping infinite elements by satisfying the boundary conditions at the infinite area.With novelty,the tunnel components,such as rings and segments,have been coupled to the vehicle–track systems using a matrix coupling method for finite elements.The responses of sub-systems included in the VTT interaction are obtained simultaneously to guarantee the solution accuracy.To relieve the computer storage and save the CPU time for the large-scale VTT dynamics system with high degrees of freedoms,a cyclic calculation method is introduced.Apart from model validations,the necessity of considering the tunnel substructures such as rings and segments is demonstrated.In addition,the maximum number of elements in the tunnel segment is confirmed by numerical simulations.

An approach for simulating the air brake system of long freight trains based on fluid dynamics

Air brake systems are critical equipment for railway trains, which affects the running safety of the trains significantly. To study air braking characteristics of long freight trains, an approach for simulating air brake systems based on fuid dynamics theory was proposed. The structures and working mechanisms of locomotive and wagon air brakes are introduced, and mathematical models of the pipes, brake valves, reservoirs or chambers, cylinders, etc., are presented.Besides, the dynamic motions of parts in the main valve are considered. The simulation model of the whole air brake system is then formulated, and the solving method based on the finite-difference method is used. New efficient pipe boundary conditions without iterations are developed for brake pipes and branch pipes, which can achieve higher computational efficiency. The proposed approach for simulating the air brake system is validated by comparing with published measured data. Simulation results of different train formations indicate that models that consider the dynamic behavior of brake pipes are recommended for predicting the characteristics of long trains under service braking conditions.

Full-scale multi-functional test platform for investigating mechanical performance of track–subgrade systems of high-speed railways

Motivated by the huge practical engineering demand for the fundamental understanding of mechanical characteristics of high-speed railway infrastructure,a fullscale multi-functional test platform for high-speed railway track–subgrade system is developed in this paper,and its main functions for investigating the mechanical performance of track–subgrade systems are elaborated with three typical experimental examples.Comprising the full-scale subgrade structure and all the five types of track structures adopted in Chinese high-speed railways,namely the CRTS I,the CRTS II and the CRTS III ballastless tracks,the double-block ballastless track and the ballasted track,the test platform is established strictly according to the construction standard of Chinese high-speed railways.Three kinds of effective loading methods are employed,including the real bogie loading,multi-point loading and the impact loading.Various types of sensors are adopted in different components of the five types of track–subgrade systems to measure the displacement,acceleration,pressure,structural strain and deformation,etc.Utilizing this test platform,both dynamic characteristics and long-term performance evolution of high-speed railway track–subgrade systems can be investigated,being able to satisfy the actual demand for large-scale operation of Chinese high-speed railways.As examples,three typical experimental studies are presented to elucidate the comprehensive functionalities of the full-scale multi-functional test platform for exploring the dynamic performance and its long-term evolution of ballastless track systems and for studying the long-term accumulative settlement of the ballasted track–subgrade system in high-speed railways.Some interesting phenomena and meaningful results are captured by the developed test platform,which provide a useful guidance for the scientific operation and maintenance of high-speed railway infrastructure.

An efficient method for train-track-substructure dynamic interaction analysis by implicit-explicit integration and multi-time-step solution

In this work,a method is put forward to obtain the dynamic solution efficiently and accurately for a large-scale train-track-substructure(TTS)system.It is called implicit-explicit integration and multi-time-step solution method(abbreviated as mI-nE-MTS method).The TTS system is divided into train-track subsystem and substruc-ture subsystem.Considering that the root cause of low effi-ciency of obtaining TTS solution lies in solving the alge-braic equation of the substructures,the high-efficient Zhai method,an explicit integration scheme,can be introduced to avoid matrix inversion process.The train-track system is solved by implicitly Park method.Moreover,it is known that the requirement of time step size differs for different sub-systems,integration methods and structural frequency response characteristics.A multi-time-step solution is pro-posed,in which time step size for the train-track subsystem and the substructure subsystem can be arbitrarily chosen once satisfying stability and precision demand,namely the time spent for m implicit integral steps is equal to n explicit integral steps,i.e.,mI=nE as mentioned above.The numeri-cal examples show the accuracy,efficiency,and engineering practicality of the proposed method.

Quantitative detection of locomotive wheel polygonization under non-stationary conditions by adaptive chirp mode decomposition

Wheel polygonal wear is a common and severe defect,which seriously threatens the running safety and reliability of a railway vehicle especially a locomotive.Due to non-stationary running conditions(e.g.,traction and braking)of the locomotive,the passing frequencies of a polygonal wheel will exhibit time-varying behaviors,which makes it too difficult to effectively detect the wheel defect.Moreover,most existing methods only achieve qualitative fault diagnosis and they cannot accurately identify defect levels.To address these issues,this paper reports a novel quantitative method for fault detection of wheel polygonization under non-stationary conditions based on a recently proposed adaptive chirp mode decomposition(ACMD)approach.Firstly,a coarse-to-fine method based on the time–frequency ridge detection and ACMD is developed to accurately estimate a time-varying gear meshing frequency and thus obtain a wheel rotating frequency from a vibration acceleration signal of a motor.After the rotating frequency is obtained,signal resampling and order analysis techniques are applied to an acceleration signal of an axle box to identify harmonic orders related to polygonal wear.Finally,the ACMD is combined with an inertial algorithm to estimate polygonal wear amplitudes.Not only a dynamics simulation but a field test was carried out to show that the proposed method can effectively detect both harmonic orders and their amplitudes of the wheel polygonization under non-stationary conditions.

Improved Dynamics Model of Locomotive Traction Motor with Elasticity of Rotor Shaft and Supporting Bearings

The locomotive traction motor is described as a rotor-bearing system coupling the kinetic equations of the traction shaft and its support bearings with the determination of their elastic deformations in this study.Under the effect of excitations induced by the dynamic rotor eccentric distance and time-varying mesh stiffness,the elastic structure deformations of the shaft and support bearings are formulated in the vibration environment of the locomotive.In addition,the nonlinear contact forces between the components of the rolling bearing,the lubricating oil film,and radial clearance are comprehensively considered in this study.The results indicate that the elastic deformations of the shaft and bearings can change the dynamic responses of the traction motor and its support bearings.There are large differences between the ranges of the rotor motion calculated by the rigid and the flexible traction motor models when the intensified wheel-rail interaction is considered.With the increase of the rotor eccentricity,the results underscore the role of the elasticity of traction shaft and support bearings in dynamic researches of the traction motor.The critical value of the initial eccentric distance for the rub-impact phenomenon decreases from 1.23 mm to 1.15 mm considering the flexible effect of the shaft and bearings.This dynamics model of the traction motor can provide more accurate and reasonable simulation results for correlational dynamic researches.

Preface to special issue on plenary presentations of Second International Conference on Rail Transportation

The Second International Conference on Rail Transportation(ICRT),initiated and hosted by Southwest Jiaotong University,completed its agenda after two days of academic reports and seminars,and came to a successful end on 6 July 2021,in Chengdu,China.The conference chairman was Professor Wanming Zhai from Southwest Jiaotong University.The conference received tremendous support from multiple co-sponsors including National Natural Science Foundation of China,Transportation&Development Institute of ASCE,National Innovation Center of High Speed Train of China,University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,Tongji University,Delft University of Technology,China Academy of Railway Sciences,Royal Institute of Technology(KTH),Central South University,Politecnico di Milano,Central Queensland University,Beijing Jiaotong University and University of Technology Sydney.

Letter from the editor-in-chief

I am delighted to announce the launch of Railway Engineering Science,an international,peer-reviewed and free open-access journal which is renamed from Journal of Modern Transportation but focused on a narrower scope,publishing original research articles and comprehensive reviews related to fundamental engineering science and emerging technologies in various rail transit systems.Rail transit is traditional while still fascinatingly new.It came into being around two centuries ago,while glowing with a new look in recent decades and still exciting in future.For example,China has built the world’s largest high-speed railway(HSR)network of over 35,000 km,more than two-thirds of the world’s total HSR mileage,by the end of 2019.More new lines are also planned and under construction.I am excited about the progress made by China that HSR network connects more than 550 cities and serves billions of people each year.

车轮扁疤冲击下重载机车齿轮传动系统动态特性分析

利用基于车辆-轨道耦合动力学与齿轮动力学理论建立的考虑齿轮传动系统动态耦合效应的机车-轨道耦合动力学模型,同时考虑车轮扁疤冲击激励和齿轮传动时变啮合刚度激励,仿真分析了机车以60 km/h的速度匀速运行时不同尺寸车轮扁疤诱发的附加轮轨冲击力,研究了扁疤尺寸对重载机车齿轮传动系统动态性能的影响.结果表明:(1)新扁疤长度的不断增大,齿轮副的啮合力和动态传递误差(dynamic transmission error, DTE)的最大值随之增大,特别是当新扁疤长度超过60 mm时,啮合力和DTE的最大值急剧增大;(2)旧扁疤深度一定时,轮轨力最大值随扁疤长度的增大而逐渐减小,啮合力和DTE的最大值变化趋势与轮轨力最大值的变化趋势基本一致;(3)当旧扁疤长度一定时,轮轨力最大值随扁疤深度的增加而逐渐增大;当扁疤深度超过0.5 mm后,轮轨力最大值增长速率减缓,而啮合力和DTE的最大值增长速率反而增大.本文研究工作对铁路机车齿轮副的设计参数选取、动态特性评估、疲劳寿命估算以及轮对维护具有一定的理论参考价值.

高速铁路多边形车轮通过钢轨焊接区的轮轨动力特性分析

车轮多边形磨耗和钢轨焊缝是轮轨界面重要的激振源,会加剧轮轨动力相互作用,严重时将威胁行车安全.既有研究主要关注单一激励作用下的轮轨动力响应,而多边形车轮通过钢轨焊接区普遍存在,对于两种激励叠加作用下的轮轨动力特性的研究尚不充分.基于此,本文采用高速车辆-板式轨道垂向耦合动力学模型,研究多边形车轮通过钢轨焊接区的轮轨动力响应特征,分析高速行车条件下车轮多边形阶数和波深对钢轨焊接区轮轨动力响应的影响规律.分析结果表明:车轮多边形不平顺变化率最大点与叠合型焊缝不平顺变化率最大点重合时,引起的轮轨动力响应波动幅值最大.多边形车轮通过钢轨焊接区时,在车轮多边形和焊缝不平顺的叠加作用下,产生了更明显的轮轨冲击效应,轮轨垂向力、轮重减载率、轮对垂向振动加速度、扣件力以及钢轨垂向振动加速度均显著增大,而对车体垂向加速度影响较小.高速行车条件下,轮轨垂向动力响应最大值整体上随着车轮多边形阶数和波深的增加而增大,在钢轨焊接区易出现轮轨瞬时脱离现象.

Impact vibration behavior of railway vehicles:a state-of-the-art overview

Excessive vibrations of railway vehicles induced by dynamic impact loadings have a significant impact on train operating safety and stability;however,due to the complexity and diversity of railway lines and service environment,they are extremely difficult to eliminate.A comprehensive overview of recent studies on the impact vibration behavior of railway vehicles was given in this paper.First,the sources of impact excitations were categorized in terms of wheel-rail contact irregularity,aerodynamic loads,and longitudinal impulses by train traction/braking.Then the main research approaches of vehicle impact vibration were briefly introduced in theoretical,experimental,and simulation aspects.Also,the impact vibration response characteristics of railway vehicles were categorized and examined in detail to various impact excitation sources.Finally,some attempts of using the railway vehicle vibration to detect track defects and the possible mitigation measures were outlined.

Progress on wheel-rail dynamic performance of railway curve negotiation

Recent advances on wheel-rail dynamic performance of curve negotiation are reviewed in this paper. There are four issues, the mechanism and calculation method of curve negotiation, the analysis and assessment of dynamic performance of vehicle, the effect of vehicle parameters on dynamic performance, and the influence of railway parameters on dynamic performance. The promising future development of wheel-rail coupled dynamics theory is analyzed in the research of curve negotiation. The framework and technique matching performance of wheel-rail dynamic interaction on the curved track are put forward for modem railways. In addition, the application of performance matching technique is introduced to the dynamic engineering, in which the wheel load is reduced obviously when the speed of train is raised to 200-250 km/h.

A numerical study on tread wear and fatigue damage of railway wheels subjected to anti-slip control

Tread wear and rolling contact fatigue (RCF) damage propagated on railway wheels are the two extremely important focal points as they can tremendously deteriorate wheel/rail interactions and hunting stability and destroy wheel surface materials, and subsequently, cut down the lifetime of the wheels. The on-board anti-slip controllers are of essence aiming to hold back the striking slipping of the powered wheelsets under low-adhesion wheel/rail conditions. This paper intends to investigate the impact of anti-slip control on wheel tread wear and fatigue damage under diverse wheel/rail friction conditions. To this end, a prediction model for wheel wear and fatigue damage evolution on account of a comprehensive vehicle–track interaction model is extended, where the wheel/rail non-Hertzian contact algorithm is used. Furthermore, the effect of frictional wear on the fatigue damage at wheel surface is considered. The simulation results indicate that the wheel/rail contact is full-slip under the low-adhesion conditions with braking effort. The wear amount under the low-adhesion conditions is observably higher than that under the dry condition. It is further suggested that the wheel tread is prone to suffering more serious wear and fatigue damage issues with a higher anti-slip control threshold compared to that with a lower one.