Analysis of the Mechanism of Rail Corrugation by Using Temperature Dependent Friction Coefficient

In order to investigate the mechanism of rail corrugation on small radius curves, a three-dimensional wheelset-track thermal-mechanical coupling finite element (FE) model was developed. Friction coefficients are modeled in consideration of the wheel-rail contact temperature effects. The dynamic response of the wheelset-track system is investigated by transient analysis on a curved track with a radius of 350 m. The results show that the wheelset-track coupling dynamic system exhibits lateral stick-slip motion on the wheelset-low rail. The wheel-rail lateral creepages have obvious periodic fluctuations with dominated frequencies of 410 and 1045 Hz, In addition, The dominated frequencies of the wheel lateral vibration velocity on contact point as well as the dominated frequencies of lateral force are similar to dominated frequencies of the creep force. During a stick-slip process, the maximum temperature of the wheel-rail contact patch temperature increases with the creepages. The percentage of sliding region within the contact patch increases from 77.1 to 100%. The stick-slip vibration of the wheelset-low rail may lead to the occurrence of rail corrugation, which corresponds to wavelengths of 40.6 and 15.9 mm.