An innovative contact partition model for wheel/rail normal contact

Wheel/rail contact modelling is essential in railway vehicle dynamic simulation, wheel/rail wear and fatigue. For this purpose, the tiny contact area at wheel/rail interface needs to be carefully investigated. In this paper a Partition Model (P_M) method is proposed to solve the wheel/rail normal contact problem. In the model, the contact region is divided into zones according to different curvature radii of wheel/rail profiles, and each zone is modified by the principle (the normal gaps of contact patch boundaries being equal to each other). For the sake of accuracy, both the iterative algorithms of wheel/rail normal force and elastic compression are also introduced in this model. Three typical test cases are designed to verify the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed method, and the results are compared to those provided by Kalker׳s CONTACT program and Finite Element (FE) method. The results show that the P_M method is fast and accurate for calculating normal contact problems in non-Hertzian cases. The good agreement with CONTACT and finite element method indicates that the capability of P_M method in railway vehicle simulation, wheel/rail wear and fatigue.