Numerical simulation of wheel rolling over rail at high-speeds

In the paper, a contact element method was used to analyze a wheel rolling over a rail at high-speeds. The rolling contact of the wheel and rail was considered as a two-dimensional rolling contact in a pure rolling and steady state. The loads applied to the wheel are the different axle-loads of train and the inertia forces caused by accelerations of the wheel in its pure rolling state. The convergence of non-linear numerical analysis on frictional contact was reached through repeated contact calculations. The normal contact pressure and tangential traction on wheel/rail contact surface were obtained for the different axle-loads and the different rolling speeds. The highest rolling speed in the numerical simulation is 400 km/h. Through the detailed numerical simulation and analysis, it was found that there exist some differences between the traditional Hertzian contact pressure and the present normal pressure. With the speed increasing the normal contact pressure becomes larger in the leading area of the contact surface, and becomes smaller in the trailing area of the contact surface. However, in the trailing area the tangential traction become larger, and in the leading area becomes smaller with the speed increasing.