Numerical study of wheel-rail impact contact solutions at an insulated rail joint

Numerical study of wheel-rail impact contact solutions at an insulated rail joint

Yang, Z. (TU Delft Railway Engineering)
Boogaard, M.A. (TU Delft Railway Engineering)
Wei, Z. (TU Delft Railway Engineering)
Liu, Jinzhao (China Academy of Railway Sciences)
Dollevoet, R.P.B.J. (TU Delft Railway Engineering)
Li, Z. (TU Delft Railway Engineering)

2018

This paper presents an analysis of the transient contact solutions of wheel-rail frictional rolling impacts calculated by an explicit finite element model of the wheel-insulated rail joint (IRJ) dynamic interaction. The ability of the model to simulate the dynamic behavior of an IRJ has been validated against a comprehensive field measurement in a recent paper (Yang et al., 2018). In addition to the measured railhead geometry and bi-linear elastoplastic material model used in Yang et al. (2018), this study adopts a nominal railhead geometry and an elastic material model for the simulations to provide an overall understanding of the transient contact behavior of wheel-IRJ impacts. Each simulation calculates the evolution of the contact patch area, stress magnitude and direction, micro-slip distribution, and railhead nodal vibration velocity in the vicinity of the joint during the wheel-IRJ impacts. The simulations apply small computational and output time steps to capture the high-frequency dynamic effects at the wheel-IRJ impact contact. Regular wave patterns that indicate wave generation, propagation and reflection are produced by the simulations; this has rarely been reported in previous research. The simulated waves reflect continuum vibrations excited by wheel-rail frictional rolling and indicate that the simulated impact contact solutions are reliable.

Insulated rail joint (IRJ)
Explicit FEM
Wheel-rail impact contact
Transient solution
Wave

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:15464d1f-e7eb-40bd-b096-4fe80e64a2fb

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2018.02.025

2018-08-12

0020-7403

International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 138–139, 310-322

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2018 Z. Yang, M.A. Boogaard, Z. Wei, Jinzhao Liu, R.P.B.J. Dollevoet, Z. Li