Analysis of the evolvement of contact wire wear irregularity in railway catenary based on historical data

This paper studies the evolvement of the wear irregularity of contact wire using wire thickness data measured yearly from a section of railway catenary. The power spectral density and time–frequency representation based on the wavelet transform are employed for data analysis, with an emphasis on local wear irregularities that are crucial for...

Computation of the flash-temperature at the wheel-rail contact using a 3D finite element model and its comparison with analytical methods

The coupled mechanical–thermal behaviour of wheel and rail materials under rolling contact is studied to determine the temperature rise due to the frictional heat. The wheel–rail frictional rolling contact problem is solved using the three–dimensional finite element (FE) method. The FE model considers the wheel tread–rail top contact with...