A new approach to the analysis and presentation of vertical track geometry quality and rail roughness

A new approach on enhancing the assessment of track geometry quality and rail roughness by means of train–track interaction simulation and wavelength content analysis is presented. The dynamic model includes vehicle, track and linearized wheel–rail contact with moving irregularities and can be simulated either in the frequency domain by using FFT or in the time domain by constructing a filter function based on system identification technique. The system is suitable to calculate wheel–rail forces for very long track sections and for several vehicle types under a wide range of travelling speeds since the computational scheme is very efficient (300 km/s on a standard computer). With numerical results we demonstrate the potential benefits of improving conventional track geometry inspection methods and highlight short defects (0.5–2 m) as a cause of high dynamic wheel–rail interaction forces. By using a wavelength weighting of measured rail roughness a new improved way of analyzing rail roughness data is also presented. This improves condition assessment of tracks and rails and will enable the track engineer to monitor the track in a better way.