Development of a model for predicting worn profile of rail considering lateral slip

Abstract

The rail is one of the most important elements in constructing railway system. The phenomenon such as wear or defect of rail will be caused by the repeated wheel/rail rolling contact. The wear of rail, which will not develop in a short period of time, has a close relation to crack initiation. Further, there is a possibility that the worn profile of rail influences the running stability or the curving performance of vehicle. Therefore, it is very important to analyze the wear development of the rail. Previously, we constructed the prototyped model for predicting worn profiles of rail with Simpack and validated of this model. At the same time, the wear of rail occurs more outstandingly in the curved section than in the straight section. In the curved section, the wheel passes with an attack angle, which gives rise to not only longitudinal slips but also lateral slips at the wheel/rail contact patch. In previous research, longitudinal slips and lateral slips have been treated as the equivalent. In this research, we conducted wear experiments by use of wheel/rail rolling contact test equipment to examine the influence of lateral slips on wear development. Moreover, we constructed wear predicting model considering lateral slip and analyzed the worn profile of rail in the same contact condition with the wear experiments. As a result of the experiments and the analysis, the analytical model was confirmed being valid to predict worn profile of rail considering lateral slip.