Modelling and experimental validation of dynamic impact in 1:9 railway crossing panel

To improve the understanding of dynamic impact in 1:9 crossing panel, which is suffering from rapid surface degradation, detailed modelling and experimental studies are performed. A three-dimensional explicit finite element (FE) model of a wheel rolling over a crossing rail, that has an adaptive mesh refinement procedure coupled with two...

Improving the performance of finite element simulations on the wheel–rail interaction by using a coupling strategy

Over the past few years, a number of implicit/explicit finite element models have been introduced for the purpose of tackling the problems of wheel–rail interaction. Yet, most of those finite element models encounter common numerical difficulties. For instance, initial gaps/penetrations between two contact bodies, which easily occur when...

Effect of wheel–rail interface parameters on contact stability in explicit finite element analysis

It is widely recognized that the accuracy of explicit finite element simulations is sensitive to the choice of interface parameters (i.e. contact stiffness/damping, mesh generation, etc.) and time step sizes. Yet, the effect of these interface parameters on the explicit finite element based solutions of wheel–rail interaction has not been...

Analysis and improvement of railway crossing performance using numerical and experimental approach: application to 1:9 double crossovers

The paper presents an integrated approach for analysis and improvement of performance of railway crossings. The approach consists of a detailed finite element (FE) model of a wheel rolling over a crossing (validated against the measured crossing accelerations) and experimental tools installed on the crossings in situ. The studied crossings are...

Modelling verification and influence of operational patterns on tribological behaviour of wheel-rail interaction

Verification of the explicit finite element (FE) model with realistic wheel-rail profiles against the CONTACT model, which has not been sufficiently discussed, is performed by comparing the resulting shear stress, slip-adhesion area, etc., obtained from the two models. The follow-up studies using the verified FE model on the influence of the...

A Numerical Procedure for Analysis of W/R Contact Using Explicit Finite Element Methods

Since no effective experimental approaches have been proposed to assess wheel and rail (W/R) contact performance till now, numerical computational analysis is known as an alternative to approximately simulate the W/R interaction. In this paper, one numerical procedure is proposed on the basis of explicit finite element method to analyse the...

Numerical analysis for fatigue life prediction on railroad RCF crack initiation

In the present paper, a numerical procedure for surface crack initiation analysis based on the critical plane approach is proposed. The complex stress/strain state of wheel and rail (W/R) contact is analysed by means of submodelling approach together with the transient contact nodal loads obtained from dynamic W/R rolling contact analysis....

Numerical analysis for fatigue life prediction on railroad RCF crack initiation

In the present paper, a numerical procedure for surface crack initiation analysis based on the critical plane approach is proposed. The complex stress/strain state of wheel and rail (W/R) contact is analysed by means of submodelling approach together with the transient contact nodal loads obtained from dynamic W/R rolling contact analysis....

Rail surface crack initiation analysis using multi-scale coupling approach

A concurrent multi-scale computational strategy for rail surface crack initiation analysis is introduced in current paper. It attempts to take advantage of the efficiency of macroscopic models and the accuracy of the mesoscopic models. The solving procedure is, through the coupling of individual approaches, beginning from the largest scale to...

Analytical study on the vibration response of curved track subjected to moving load