Academic literature on the topic 'COMPUTATIONAL MODELLING OF RAIL WHEEL'

Modelling of vehicle–track interaction has long been a hot and interesting topic. In multibody dynamics based on force-equilibrium methods, Hertzian contact and creep theories have been applied in vehicle–track model constructions. In another aspect, the complementarity-based methods have also been widely used in establishing vehicle–track interaction, but still having drawbacks on characterization of wheel–rail contact geometry/creepage in three-dimensional space. In this study, we draw essences from methodologies of refined wheel–rail coupling models and energy-variational principle, and a model for vehicle–track three-dimensional interactions with inclusion of rail irregularity excitations is newly developed. This model possesses high accuracy compared with Hertzian contact, FastSim, and vehicle–track coupled model in the middle-low frequency domain, and also, the advantages in computational stability are possessed. In this model, the unevenness of rail irregularities at the three-dimensional space is preliminarily considered by taking a hypothesis of normal distribution and accordingly, the wheel–rail three-dimensional constraint equations are presented. Extensively, a series of numerical examples are shown to verify the effectiveness and engineering practicability of this model. Besides, the influence of rail three-dimensional irregularities on the dynamic performance of vehicle–track systems is further explored, which shows when the trochoid of the wheel–rail contact points changes rapidly, the additional inertial effects brought out by rail irregularities might exert great influence on wheel–rail forces.

Simulation computations represent a very effective tool for investigating operational characteristics and behaviours of vehicles without having a real product. The rail vehicles sector is typical, in that simulation computations including multibody modelling of individual vehicles (i.e., wagons) as well as entire trainsets are widely used. In the case of designing rail vehicles, running safety and ride comfort are two of the most important assessment areas. The presented work is focused on the research of the dynamical effects of a rail vehicle while running on a railway track created in a commercial multibody model. There is a lot of research focused on the investigation of dynamic performances while a rail vehicle is running on a flexible railway track. The real operation of a rail vehicle meets problems on track, where the stiffness-damping parameters of a railway track vary in transient sections (e.g., the exit of a tunnel). This work brings a contribution to research related to the assessment of the dynamic response of a rail vehicle on a chosen track section. A passenger railway vehicle is chosen as a reference multibody model. Simulation computations were performed for three different railway track models, i.e., for a rigid track model and for a flexible track model defined in two different manners. The stiffness-damping parameters of the rail vehicle are defined symmetrically in relation to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, e.g., they are the same values for the left and right side. The centre of gravity is not located symmetrically, but it is partially shifted in the lateral direction. This can be observed in the results of wheel forces and their waveforms. There are evaluated values and waveforms of the vertical wheel forces, the lateral wheel forces and the derailment quotient. The obtained results have revealed the influence of the railway track formulation in the model on the output parameters.

The rapid convergence of the tangential rolling contact parameters to their stationary values, combined with the high computational cost associated with calculations using instationary models, has meant that stationary models are usually employed in railway dynamics. However, the validity of stationary models when the applied contact conditions are subjected to rapid changes has not been sufficiently investigated. With the objective of deducing the effects of the evolution of the instationary process on the contact parameters, the tangential contact problem is solved for a set of reference conditions. For this purpose a calculation model is adapted, from which it is possible to analyse the evolution of the contact parameters when the forces exerted between rail and wheel are subjected to rapid changes. From the calculations made, situations impossible to simulate by means of stationary theories are obtained according to the frequency of variation in the forces, such as slip zones in the leading edge of the contact area and reverse contact (locally, the traction field is opposite to the direction of the external force transmitted to the contact).

The boundary element method (BEM) is widely used in fast numerical solvers for concentrated elastic contact problems arising from the wheel-rail contact in the railway industry. In this paper we extend the range of applicability of BEM by computing the influence coefficients (ICs) numerically. These ICs represent the Green’s function of the problem, i.e. the surface deformation due to unit loads. They are not analytically available when the half-space is invalid, for instance in conformal contact. An elastic model is proposed to compute these ICs numerically, by the finite element method (FEM). We present a detailed investigation to find proper strategies of FEM meshing and element types, considering accuracy and computational cost. Moreover, the effects of computed ICs to contact solutions are examined for a Cattaneo shift contact problem. The work in this paper provides a guidance to study fast solvers for the conformal contact.