A finite element thermomechanical analysis of the development of wheel polygonal wear

Polygonal wear is a type of damage commonly observed on the railway wheel tread. It induces wheel-rail impacts and consequent train/track components failure. This study presents a finite element (FE) thermomechanical wheel-rail contact model, which is able to cope with the three possible generation and development mechanisms of polygonal wear...

Comparisons between beam and continuum models for modelling wheel-rail impact at a singular rail surface defect

A singular rail or wheel surface irregularity, such as a squat, insulation joint or wheel flat, can cause large wheelrail impact force. Both the magnitude and frequency content of the impact force need to be correctly modelledbecause they are closely related to the formation, deterioration and detection of such irregularities. In this paper,we...

Thermomechanical analysis of the wheel-rail contact using a coupled modelling procedure

This research presents a coupled thermomechanical modelling procedure for the wheel-rail contact problem and computes the flash-temperature and stress-strain responses when thermal effects are present. A three-dimensional elasto-plastic finite element model was built considering the wheel-track interaction. When the wheel is running on rail,...