A Transient Dynamics Study on Wear-type Rail Corrugation on a Tight Curve due to the Friction-induced Self-excited Vibration of a Wheelset-track System

Rail corrugation has been perplexing metro tracks over the years. It is of great significance in both theory and application to study the generation mechanism for rail corrugation. Based on the viewpoint of friction-induced self-excited vibration of a wheelset-track system causing rail corrugation, an elastic vibration model of a wheelset-track system when a vehicle negotiates a tight curve at a steady state is established, which includes a wheelset, two rails and a series of sleepers. In the model, the creep forces between the wheels and rails are assumed to be saturated and equal to the normal contact forces multiplied by the friction coefficient. The motion stability of the model is analyzed and transient dynamics of friction-induced self-excited vibration of the wheelset-track system is simulated using ABAQUS package. Dynamic vibrations of the rails and time histories of the contact normal forces are obtained due to self-excited vibration of the wheel-track system. Results show that there is a serious fluctuation of the contact normal force between the inner wheel and low rail. The mechanism for the fluctuating contact normal force causing rail corrugation is discussed.