Numerical prediction of rail wear development in high-speed railway turnouts

Abstract

Wear of rails in turnouts is a common problem during the operation of high-speed railways. It can seriously affect the running safety of trains and the service lives of wheels and turnout rails. In this study, a numerical prediction model for rail wear development in high-speed railway turnouts was established. According to the material wear theory developed by Archard, the wear depth distribution in the wheel–rail contact patch was calculated based on a vehicle–turnout coupling dynamics simulation and wheel–rail rolling contact analysis. For the dynamics model, various components of the vehicle and complex nonlinear interactions between the components were simulated in detail to guarantee consistency with reality. The combination relationship of the switch and stock rails and the irregular and variable cross-sections of the rails in the switch panel of the turnout were considered. Spatial interpolation was used to achieve three-dimensional transitions between adjacent irregular cross-sections to model the compromised rails in the turnout. In addition, the stiffness and damping characteristics of the track in the turnout zone were taken into account. The rail wear rates for every characteristic section of the switch panel were calculated by the superposition model for rail profile wear. An adaptive-step algorithm was adopted in the iterative computations to update the rail profiles for every characteristic section position, which could reduce the cumulative errors and effectively improve the stability and reliability of the numerical model. Finally, case studies were conducted to investigate the wear developments of the switch and stock rails of high-speed turnouts using the developed model. In addition, the rail wear status of turnouts in the Shanghai–Nanjing high-speed railway was measured. The numerical prediction results are consistent with those of the actual situations in the field, verifying the rationality of the established model. This work shows the potential for guiding the maintenance and optimal design of turnouts and improving the understanding of the formation mechanism and influencing factors of rail wear in turnouts.

Research of operation mode of high-speed trains on the effect of rail wear evolution law

“…Zhu et al (2021) considered the aerodynamic loads generated by encounters between HSTs; the effects of HST encounters on wheel wear at different speeds were also investigated and provided a more accurate wheel wear model and new ideas for reducing wheel wear. Wang et al (2020aWang et al ( , 2020b calculated the wear depth distribution within the wheel-rail contact area and on the rail profile based on Archard's wear theory. Zhou et al (2020) investigated the wear and damage behavior of three heavy-haul rail steels at laboratory and low temperatures using a rolling sliding wear…”

“…The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/0036-8792.htm tester. Based on the material wear theory proposed by Archard, Wang et al (2020aWang et al ( , 2020b established a numerical prediction model for the development of turnout wear in high-speed railways based on vehicle-turnout coupled dynamics simulation and wheel-rail rolling contact analysis.…”

“…Zhou et al (2020) investigated the wear and damage behavior of three heavy-haul rail steels at laboratory and low temperatures using a rolling sliding wear tester. Based on the material wear theory proposed by Archard, Wang et al (2020a, 2020b) established a numerical prediction model for the development of turnout wear in high-speed railways based on vehicle-turnout coupled dynamics simulation and wheel–rail rolling contact analysis.…”

The analysis of frictional rolling contact behavior and key affecting factors on uneven wear in a switch panel

“…To predict the distribution and evolution of rail wear and recognize the influence of operating environmental factors and structural parameters on wear, the scholars all over the world have put forward many theoretical models and calculation methods. 4,5 Franklin and Widiyarta established a theoretical numerical method to evaluate the local failure of rail material, the method was applied to calculate the accumulated shear strain under cyclic wheel loading, and predicted the rolling contact damage and worn profile. 6,7 Enblom investigated the influence of shear deformation on wheel-rail relative sliding velocity and braking effect on rail wear respectively.…”

Analysis of the causes of severe side wear of the high rail on metro curves by numerical simulation and field investigation

“…This model was extended by Li et al 21 to study rail wear in the curve of heavy haul lines. Wang et al 22,23 studied the evolution process of rail profile and turnout rail profile of high-speed line by wear simulation. Xu et al 24 investigated the effect of track parameters on the wear of turnout rails in high-speed railways.…”