The presence of rail corrugation enlarges the wheel-rail impact and exacerbates the failure of track components, and the situation becomes even worse under high train speed, which promotes the urgent need for an efficient and easily accessible inspection method. Conventional diagnosis approaches such as axle box acceleration (ABA) and image recognition measurements, however, require complex instrumentations on the running gear, restricting their applications on a wide range of operational trains. In this study, we investigate the capability of carriage interior noise in diagnosing rail corrugation on the high-speed railway (HSR). For this purpose, train-borne vibration & noise measurements were integrated with in-situ rail surface irregularity tests, to extract the characteristic carriage interior responses induced by rail corrugation. The measurements were conducted on two HSR tracks with different corrugation geometries, and the time–frequency distributions of interior noise were identified under different train speeds and with different track radii. Afterward, an interior noise-based inspection algorithm was proposed by proper correlation of the gained data, and was then demonstrated on a third HSR track with an unknown rail surface condition. The comparison between the proposed inspection algorithm and the widely-recognized ABA measurements indicates that the interior noise succeeded in identifying the position, typical wavelength and severity of rail corrugation under varying train speeds. The work advances a cost-effective and easily accessible way for the condition monitoring of railway tracks.

In this study, a wheel-rail transient rolling contact model capable of accounting for the nonlinear displacement-force properties of hanging sleepers is proposed. The sleeper hanging status affected by rail irregularities is an input for an analysis of the wheel-rail contact behavior and related rail degradation in terms of plastic deformation and rolling contact fatigue. The results indicate that the severity of sleeper hanging is significantly affected by the geometric characteristics and the relative position with respect to the sleepers of the rail surface irregularity. The sleeper hanging defects aggravate the wheel-rail impact and increase the wheel-rail contact force amplitude, contact patch size, pressure, and von Mises stress, thus exacerbating the plastic deformation of the rail material. It was also found that the sleeper hanging defects rarely affect the distribution of the adhesion-slip states and rolling contact fatigue. The knowledge gained can serve as guidance for evaluating the condition and conducting the maintenance of ballasted railway tracks.