Rail Corrugation: Characteristics, Causes and Treatments

Abstract

Corrugation is a phenomenon which has excited the interest of railwaymen for more than a century, but for which there often does not appear to be a cure. It has generally been realized that there are in fact different corrugation mechanisms, and that some types of corrugation can indeed be prevented. The present paper draws upon both the literature and the authors' experience to categorize corrugation according to two mechanisms: that damaging the rail (wear, plastic flow etc.) and that fixing the corrugation wavelength. Six types of corrugation are thus identified and described by the following proposed terminology: ‘heavy haul’, ‘light rail’, ‘ooted sleeper’, ‘contact fatigue’, ‘rutting’ and ‘roaring rails’. Both mechanisms are well understood for all but the last type of corrugation, for which a convincing and well-validated wavelength-fixing mechanism has yet to be demonstrated. Despite the absence of this understanding, satisfactory treatments of, and in many cases also means of preventing, all six types of corrugation have in fact been developed. Excitation of the vehicle's unsprung mass on the track stiffness is the most common wavelength-fixing mechanism.

Evolution of Rail Corrugation Predicted With a Non-Linear Wear Model

“…It is seen that the L/a 0 ratio for the characteristic wave length lies in the range from 5 ± 10. In wheel/rail contact the typical size of a 0 is somewhere between 5 mm and 10 mm, which thus provides a characteristic wave length in the interval 0Á025± 0Á1 m. This ®ts very well with the observed wave lengths for short pitch corrugation [1].…”

“…The typical wave length for short pitch corrugation lies within the range 0 Á 03± 0 Á 1 m with wave amplitudes of magnitudes up to 100 mm. A thorough description of the various types of corrugation has been given by Grassie and Kalousek [1].…”

Measurement of Longitudinal Rail Irregularities and Criteria for Acceptable Grinding

“…This is particularly important since the conventional way of grinding, with motors which rotate about an axis normal to the rail, can leave a periodic irregularity at the stone-passing pitch: i.e., the distance the grinding train moves forward during one revolution of the stone [1,2]. For typical rotational speeds of 50-60 Hz and grinding speeds of 5±10 km/h, the stone-passing pitch is similar to the 25±80 mm wavelength of corrugation commonly found on high speed main lines [3].…”

Modeling of high-speed wheel-rail rolling contact on a corrugated rail and corrugation development

“…Considering different material damage and wavelength fixing mechanisms, Grassie and Kalousek (1993) and Grassie (2005) classified corrugation into six different categories based on engineering experience, which significantly increased the understanding of corrugation.…”

“…The corrugation mechanisms proposed by Grassie and Kalousek (1993), Grassie (2005), and Knothe and Groβ-Thebing (2008) imply that the key to understanding and predicting corrugation initiation and development is to solve the dynamic vehicletrack interaction and the transient wheel-rail rolling contact. The present work employs a 3D transient rolling contact finite element (FE) model to solve the high-speed wheel-rail rolling contact and the vehicletrack interaction on a corrugated rail in the time domain.…”