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.

Influence of railway wheel tread damage on wheel-rail impact loads and the durability of wheelsets

Dynamic wheel-rail contact forces induced by a severe form of wheel tread damage have been measured by a wheel impact load detector during full-scale field tests at different vehicle speeds.Based on laser scanning,the measured three-dimensional damage geometry is employed in simulations of dynamic vehicle-track interaction to calibrate and verify a simulation model.The relation between the magnitude of the impact load and various operational parameters,such as vehicle speed,lateral position of wheel-rail contact,track stiffness and position of impact within a sleeper bay,is investigated.The calibrated model is later employed in simulations featuring other forms of tread damage;their effects on impact load and subsequent fatigue impact on bearings,wheel webs and subsurface initiated rolling contact fatigue of the wheel tread are assessed.The results quantify the effects of wheel tread defects and are valuable in a shift towards condition-based maintenance of running gear,and for general assessment of the severity of different types of railway wheel tread damage.

A critical review of wheel/rail high frequency vibration-induced vibration fatigue of railway bogie in China

Purpose–This review aims to give a critical view of the wheel/rail high frequency vibration-induced vibration fatigue in railway bogie.Design/methodology/approach–Vibration fatigue of railway bogie arising from the wheel/rail high frequency vibration has become the main concern of railway operators.Previous reviews usually focused on the formation mechanism of wheel/rail high frequency vibration.This paper thus gives a critical review of the vibration fatigue of railway bogie owing to the short-pitch irregularities-induced high frequency vibration,including a brief introduction of short-pitch irregularities,associated high frequency vibration in railway bogie,typical vibration fatigue failure cases of railway bogie and methodologies used for the assessment of vibration fatigue and research gaps.Findings–The results showed that the resulting excitation frequencies of short-pitch irregularity vary substantially due to different track types and formation mechanisms.The axle box-mounted components are much more vulnerable to vibration fatigue compared with other components.The wheel polygonal wear and rail corrugation-induced high frequency vibration is the main driving force of fatigue failure,and the fatigue crack usually initiates from the defect of the weld seam.Vibration spectrum for attachments of railway bogie defined in the standard underestimates the vibration level arising from the short-pitch irregularities.The current investigations on vibration fatigue mainly focus on the methods to improve the accuracy of fatigue damage assessment,and a systematical design method for vibration fatigue remains a huge gap to improve the survival probability when the rail vehicle is subjected to vibration fatigue.Originality/value–The research can facilitate the development of a new methodology to improve the fatigue life of railway vehicles when subjected to wheel/rail high frequency vibration.

Contact Mechanism of Rail Grinding with Open-Structured Abrasive Belt Based on Pressure Grinding Plate

The current research of abrasive belt grinding rail mainly focuses on the contact mechanism and structural design.Compared with the closed structure abrasive belt grinding,open-structured abrasive belt grinding has excellent performance in dynamic stability,consistency of grinding quality,extension of grinding mileage and improvement of working efficiency.However,in the contact structure design,the open-structured abrasive belt grinding rail using a profiling pressure grinding plate and the closed structure abrasive belt using the contact wheel are different,and the contact mechanisms of the two are different.In this paper,based on the conformal contact and Hertz theory,the contact mechanism of the pressure grinding plate,abrasive belt and rail is analyzed.Through finite element simulation and static pressure experiment,the contact behavior of pressure grinding plate,abrasive belt and rail under single concentrated force,uniform force and multiple concentrated force was studied,and the distribution characteristics of contact stress on rail surface were observed.The results show that under the same external load,there are three contact areas under the three loading modes.The outer contour of the middle contact area is rectangular,and the inner contour is elliptical.In the contact area at both ends,the stress is extremely small under a single concentrated force,the internal stress is drop-shaped under a uniform force,and the internal stress under multiple concentration forces is elliptical.Compared with the three,the maximum stress is the smallest and the stress distribution is more uniform under multiple concentrated forces.Therefore,the multiple concentrated forces is the best grinding pressure loading mode.The research provides support for the application of rail grinding with open-structured abrasive belt based on pressure grinding plate,such as contact mechanism and grinding pressure mode selection.

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF TWO-POINT CONTACT BETWEEN WHEEL AND RAIL

The elastic-plastic contact problem with rolling friction of wheel-rail is solved using the FE parametric quadratic programming method. Thus, the complex elastic-plastic contact problem can be calculated with high accuracy and efficiency, while the Hertz＇s hypothesis and the elastic semi-space assumption are avoided. Based on the ‘one-point＇ contact calculation of wheel-rail, the computational model of ‘two-point＇ contact are established and calculated when the wheel flange is close to the rail. In the case of ‘two-point＇ contact, the changing laws of wheelrail contact are introduced and contact forces in various load cases are carefully analyzed. The main reason of wheel flange wear and rail side wear is found. Lubrication computational model of the wheel flange is constructed. Comparing with the result without lubrication, the contact force between wheel flange and rail decreases, which is beneficial for reducing the wear of wheel-rail.

ANALYSIS OF THERMAL-ELASTIC STRESS OF WHEEL-RAIL IN ROLLING-SLIDING CONTACT

A coupling thermo-mechanical model of wheel/rail in rolling-sliding contact is put forward using finite element method. The normal contact pressure is idealized as the Hertzian distribution, and the tangential force presented by Carter is used. In order to obtain thermal-elastic stress, the ther-mal-elastic plane stress problem is transformed to an elastic plane stress problem with equivalent fictitious thermal body force and fictitious boundary distributed force. The temperature rise and ther-mal-elastic stress of wheel and rail in rolling-sliding are analyzed. The non-steady state heat transfer between the contact surfaces of wheel and rail, heat-convection and radiation between the wheel/rail and the ambient are taken into consideration. The influences of the wheel rolling speed and wear rate on friction temperature and thermal-elastic stress are investigated. The results show the following： ① For rolling-sliding case, the thermal stress in the thin layer near the contact patch due to the friction temperature rise is severe. The higher rolling speed leads to the lower friction temperature rise and thermal stress in the wheel; ② For sliding case, the friction temperature and thermal stress of the wheel rise quickly in the initial sliding stage, and then get into a steady state gradually. The expansion of the contact patch, due to material wear, can affect the friction temperature rise and the thermal stress during wear process. The higher wear rate generates lower stress. The results can help under-stand the influence of friction temperature and thermal-elastic stress on wheel and rail damage.

Effect of wheelset flexibility on wheel–rail contact behavior and a specific coupling of wheel–rail contact to flexible wheelset

The fexibility of a train＇s wheelset can have a large effect on vehicle–track dynamic responses in the medium to high frequency range.To investigate the effects of wheelset bending and axial deformation of the wheel web,a specifi coupling of wheel–rail contact with a fexible wheelset is presented and integrated into a conventional vehicle–track dynamic system model.Both conventional and the proposed dynamic system models are used to carry out numerical analyses on the effects of wheelset bending and axial deformation of the wheel web on wheel–rail rolling contact behaviors.Excitations with various irregularities and speeds were considered.The irregularities included measured track irregularity and harmonic irregularities with two different wavelengths.The speeds ranged from 200 to400km/h.The results show that the proposed model can characterize the effects of fexible wheelset deformation on the wheel–rail rolling contact behavior very well.

Effects of Lateral Motion on the Creep Forces in Wheel/Rail Rolling Contact

The influences of the lateral motion of a single wheelset running on a tangent railway on the creepages and creep forces between wheel and rail are investigated with numerical methods. The effect of the yaw motion of wheelset is neglected in the analysis, and Kalker’s theory of three dimensional elastic bodies in rolling contact is employed to analyze the creep forces in the wheel/rail rolling contact with Non Hertzian form.

An integrated approach for the optimization of wheel-rail contact force measurement systems

A comprehension of railway dynamic behavior implies the measure of wheel-rail contact forces which are affected by disturbances and errors that are often difficult to be quantified. In this study, a benchmark test case is proposed, and a bogie with a layout used on some European locomotives such as SIEMENS El90 is studied. In this layout, an additional shaft on which brake disks are installed is used to transmit the braking torque to the wheelset through a single-stage gearbox. Using a mixed approach based on finite element techniques and statistical considerations, it is possible to evaluate an optimal layout for strain gauge positioning and to optimize the measurement system to diminish the effects of noise and disturbance. We also conducted preliminary evaluations on the precision and frequency response of the proposed system.

A dynamic simulation of the wheel–rail impact caused by a wheel flat using a 3D rolling contact model

A three-dimensional （3-D） wheel-rail rolling contact model with a wheel fiat was built using commercial software Hypermesh, and the dynamic finite element simulation was conducted using LS-DYNA 3D/explicit code. Influences of the train speed, flat length and axle load on the vertical wheel-rail impact response were discussed, respectively. The results show that the maximum vertical wheel-rail impact force induced by the wheel flat is higher than that generated by the perfect wheel, and these two dynamic impact forces are much greater than the static axle load. Besides, the maximum von Mises equivalent stress and maximum equivalent plastic strain are observed on the wheel-rail contact surface, and both of them as well as the maximum wheel-rail impact force are sensitive to train speed, fiat length and axle load.

Wheel/rail-force–based maintenance interval extension of the C80 series wagon

Purpose–This study aims to introduce the achievements and benefits of applying wheel/rail-force–based maintenance interval extension of the C80 series wagon in China.Design/methodology/approach–Chinese wagons’existing maintenance strategy had left a certain safety margin for the characteristics of widely running range,unstable service environment and submission to transportation organization requirements.To reduce maintenance costs,China railway(CR)has attempted to extend the maintenance interval since 2020.The maintenance cycle of C80 series heavy haul wagons is extended by three months(no stable routing)or 50,000 km(regular routing).However,in the meantime,the alarming rate of the running state,a key index to reflect the severe degree of hunting stability,by the train performance detection system(TPDS)for the C80 series heavy haul wagons has increased significantly.Findings–The present paper addresses a big data statistical way to evaluate the risk of allowing the C80 series heavy haul wagons to remain in operation longer than stipulated by the maintenance interval initial set.Through the maintenance and wayside-detectordata,whichis divided intothreestages,the extension period(three months),the current maintenance period and the previous maintenance period,this method reveals the alarming rate of hunting was correlated with maintenance interval.The maintainability of wagons will be achieved by utilizing wagon performance degradation modeling with the state of the wheelset and the often-contact side bearing.This paper also proposes a statistical model to return to the average safety level of the previous maintenance period’s baseline through correct alarming thresholds for unplanned corrective maintenance.Originality/value–The paper proposes an approach to reduce safety risk due to maintenance interval extension by effective maintenance program.The results are expected to help the railway company make the optimal solution to balance safety and the economy.

State-of-Arts of Mechanics of Rolling Contact and Its Application to Analysis of the Interactions between Wheel and Rail

A few typical models of theory on rolling contact of bodies are reviewed, and the advantages and disadvantages in the applications to the dynamics of railway vehicles and the wheel/rail rolling contact are discussed in detail in the present paper.

Simulation on derailment base on a new wheel-rail contact method

The simulation package for special research on derailment of high speed vehicle is established.The process of derailment is different from other behaviors of vehicle dynamics because of large lateral displacement of wheelsets.To get correct results,a new fast algorithm to computing contact force is adopted and the exact geometry analysis is necessary to judge derailment happened.Variation of contact condition and coefficient of friction with speeds are also considered into vehicle-track coupled model.The structure of the package is presented in detail.The results are particular emphasis on investigation influence of maximum track defect,critical vehicle speed and various contact condition on derailment.The simulation can also be used to define the most risk factor leading to derailment.

Modeling of Energy Processes in Wheel-Rail Contacts Operating under Influence of Periodic Discontinuous Forces

In this paper we present new numerical simulation approaches for determining the energy processes under periodic conditions caused by time-discontinuous forces in the wheel-rail contacts. The main advantage of the presented method is the total elimination of frequency analysis, which in effect introduces important simplifications in the identification of the effects in the contact. The second important feature is the fact that the method is based on the analysis of appropriate loops on the energy phase plane leading to an easy estimation of the rail strength through the evaluation of the loop’s area. That model based simulation in the applied dynamics relies on advanced methods for model setup, robust and efficient numerical solution techniques and powerful simulation tools for practical applications. Fundamental properties of contact displacements of the rail surface have been considered on the basis of the newly established method. The contact zone between railway wheels and the rail surfaces made of bulk materials is perceived as strong enough to resist the normal (vertical) forces introduced by heavy loads and the dynamic response induced by track and wheel irregularities. The analysis is carried out for a wheel running on an elastic rail rested on sleepers arranged on completely rigid foundation. The equations of displacement motion are established through the application of the Lagrange equations approach. The established model of the wheel-rail contact dynamics has been applied to that same roll plane but with taking into account a nonlinear characteristic of the sleeper with respect to the ground. Attention then is focused completely on the modeling of the energy absorbed by the rail. The applied method employs the energy state variables as time functions leading to determine the susceptibility of a given contact on the strength induced by the rail roll.

The effect of track alignment irregularity on wheel-rail contact geometry relationship in a turnout zone

The irregularity is a key factor affecting the wheel-rail contact geometry relationship. In this paper, we calculated the wheel-rail contact points at typical sections and obtained the longitudinal variation of the wheel-rail geometry relationship with the trace line method. The profile of the key rail sections was matched by cubic spline curve, and the shape interpolation was realized in non-controlling sections. The results show that the roll angles at each typical section increases gradually with the enlargement of track alignment irregularity. When the flange contact occurs, the roll angle increases dramatically. Proper track alignment irregularity towards the switch rail improves the structure irregularity of the turnout.

Multi-Body Dynamics Modeling of Heavy Goods Vehicle-Rail Interaction

Based on the principle of vehicle-track coupling dynamics, SIMPACK multi-body dynamics software is used to establish a C80 wagon line-coupled multi-body dynamics model with 73 degrees of freedom. And the reasonableness of the line-coupled dynamics model is verified by using the maximum residual acceleration, the nonlinear critical speed of the wagon. The experimental results show that the established vehicle line coupling dynamics model meets the requirements of vehicle line coupling dynamics modeling.

ELASTIC-PLASTIC FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL CONTACT-IMPACT AT RAIL JOINT

Using the finite element code ANSYS/LS-DYNA, a dynamic finite element modelwith an elastic-linear-kinematic-hardening plastic material is established to analyzeelastic-plastic stresses in the railhead in the impact process of wheel and rail occurring at thegap of rail joint. The model is based on the discrete elastic support condition of the rails, whichis suitable for the actual situation of wheel/track rolling contact. In the analysis the influencesof axle load, yield stress and tangent modulus of rail material on the stresses and strains areinvestigated in detail. The distribution of stresses and strains in the jointed railhead are given.It is found that the axle load, yield stress and tangent modulus of rail material greatly affect thestresses and strains in the railhead during impacting. The study provides a reliable method anduseful datum for the further research on fatigue and wear of railhead and improving the rail jointmode.

Numerical simulation of wheel wear evolution for heavy haul railway

The prediction of the wheel wear is a fundamental problem in heavy haul railway. A numerical methodology is introduced to simulate the wheel wear evolution of heavy haul freight car. The methodology includes the spatial coupling dynamics of vehicle and track, the three-dimensional rolling contact analysis of wheel-rail, the Specht's material wear model, and the strategy for reproducing the actual operation conditions of railway. The freight vehicle is treated as a full 3D rigid multi-body model. Every component is built detailedly and various contact interactions between parts are accurately simulated, taking into account the real clearances. The wheel-rail rolling contact calculation is carried out based on Hertz's theory and Kalker's FASTSIM algorithm. The track model is built based on field measurements. The material loss due to wear is evaluated according to the Specht's model in which the wear coefficient varies with the wear intensity. In order to exactly reproduce the actual operating conditions of railway,dynamic simulations are performed separately for all possible track conditions and running velocities in each iterative step.Dimensionless weight coefficients are introduced that determine the ratios of different cases and are obtained through site survey. For the wheel profile updating, an adaptive step strategy based on the wear depth is introduced, which can effectively improve the reliability and stability of numerical calculation. At last, the wear evolution laws are studied by the numerical model for different wheels of heavy haul freight vehicle running in curves. The results show that the wear of the front wheelset is more serious than that of the rear wheelset for one bogie, and the difference is more obvious for the outer wheels. The wear of the outer wheels is severer than that of the inner wheels. The wear of outer wheels mainly distributes near the flange and the root; while the wear of inner wheels mainly distributes around the nominal rolling circle. For the outer wheel of front wheelset of each bogie, the development of wear is gradually concentrated on the flange and the developing speed increases continually with the increase of traveled distance.

Wheel-rail Profiles Matching Design Considering Railway Track Parameters

The profile of wheel/rail has great concern with the vehicle running safety, the wheel/rail wear and the rolling contact fatigue between wheel and rail, due to its severer impact on the dynamic behavior of both the railway vehicle/track, and the wheel/rail rolling contact status. However, recent studies in this respect are mainly explored in reverse methods, where track parameters are predetermined and invariable during the optimizing process. This paper attempts to propose a wheel-rail profiles matching design method considering multi-parameter, through optimizing wheel/rail profile under different rail cants and track gauges, based on the existed optimization technology for the normal gap of wheel/rail. The method presented in this paper can also, compared with the prior reverse methods, be called ＂forward solution method＂ in which the riding comfort, wheel unloading rate and wheel/rail contact stress of the speed-up railway passenger car are calculated by means of a vehicle-track coupling dynamic model, with the range of the rail cant varying from 1/20 to 1/40 and the rail gauge from 1 433 mm to 1 441 mm. These results show that the distribution status of the pairs of contact points can be obviously improved and the contact stress can be reduced significantly; a great influence is exposed by the rail cant and track gauge on the dynamic behavior of the high speed passenger car, and an optimal vehicle dynamics behavior are obtained with the optimized wheel/rail profile when the rail cant is 1/30 and the track gauge is 1 435 mm. This research can provide important references for the investigation of the wheel-rail profiles matching design method considering multi-parameter.

Vibro-acoustic Radiation Characteristics Analysis of Railway Vehicle Wheel with Damping Ridges Based on Modal Strain Energy

The existing researches on the damping wheel mainly focus on investigating the influence of damping structure change on the vibro-acoustic control.The changes include the geometric size of the damping structure,the damping material parameters,and the placement,and so on.In order to further understand the mechanism in reducing the acoustic radiation of railway wheel with layer damping treatment,in this paper,the wheel is simply modified by a full-sized circular plate.The circle plate side has stuck circumference constrained damping ridges and radial constrained damping ridges on it.Based on a hybrid finite element method-boundary element method（FEM-BEM）,the paper develops a vibro-acoustic radiation model for such a distributed constrained damping structure.The vibration and acoustic radiation of the circular plate is analyzed.In the analysis,the dynamic response of the system is obtained by using the 3D finite model superposition method.The obtained vibration response is used as the initial boundary condition in solving Helmholtz boundary integral equation for the sound radiation analysis.In the procedure,firstly,the modal analysis of the circular plate is performed to get the distribution of the system modal strain energy.Secondly,the vibro-acoustic radiation characteristics of the plate with different kinds of circumference damping ridges and radial damping ridges are compared in order to try to find the best effective damping ridge structure.Thirdly,using the distribution of the plate modal strain energy investigates the effect of the ridge distribution locations on the circular plate on its vibro-acoustic radiation.The calculation and analysis research results show that,the sticking circumference and radial damping ridges on the plate can control the vibro-acoustic radiation of the plate effectively in different frequency range.The distribution of the constrained damping ridge has an effect on reduction in vibro-acoustic radiation of the circular plate.The present research is very useful in the design of railway wheel with low noise level.