Typical wheel–rail profile change rules and matching characteristics of high speed railway in China

Abstract

PurposeIn order to systematically grasp the changes and matching characteristics of wheel and rail profiles of high speed railway (HSR) in China, 172 rail profile measurement points and 384 wheels of 6 high-speed electric motive unites (EMUs) were selected on 6 typical HSR lines, including Beijing–Shanghai, Wuhan–Guangzhou, Harbin–Dalian, Lanzhou–Xinjiang, Guiyang–Guangzhou and Dandong–Dalian for a two-year field test.Design/methodology/approachBased on the measured data, the characteristics of rail and wheel wear were analyzed by mathematical statistics method. The equivalent conicity of wheel and rail matching in a wheel reprofiling cycle was analyzed by using the measured rail profile.FindingsResults showed that when the curve radius of HSR was larger than 2,495 m, the wear rate of straight line and curve rail was almost the same. For the line with annual traffic gross weight less than 11 Mt, the vertical wear of rail was less than 0.01 mm. The wear rate of the rail with the curve radius less than 800 m increased obviously. The wheel tread wear of EMUs on Harbin–Dalian line, Lanzhou–Xinjiang line and Dandong–Dalian line was relatively large, and the average wear rate of tread was about 0.05–0.06 mm·(10,000 km)−1, while that of Beijing–Shanghai line, Wuhan–Guangzhou line and Guiyang–Guangzhou line was about 0.03–0.035 mm·(10,000 km)−1. When the wear range was small, the equivalent conicity increased with the increase of wheel tread wear. When the wear range of wheel was wide, the wheel–rail contact points were evenly distributed, and the equivalent conicity did not increase obviously.Originality/valueThis research proposes the distribution range of the equivalent conicity in one reprofiling cycle of various EMU trains, which provides guidance for the condition-based wheel reprofiling.

Review of wheel-rail forces measuring technology for railway vehicles

“…Zeng et al of China Academy of Railway Sciences 16,17 began to study the theory and practice of continuous measurement technology of IWS at the end of last century. At the initial stage of the research, the wheel rail force was identified by using the wheel spoke strain method.…”

A Dynamic Design Methodology for Large-Scale Complex Nonlinear Systems Based on Orthogonal Decomposition Technique

“…As far as the CRH3C bogies are concerned, with four ZF Sachs T60 confgurations per bogie, as shown in Figures 1(g)-1(i), the central hollow tread wear is formed eventually no matter the rail grinding treatment or the wheel profle renewal design, which is mainly manifested in the following three aspects: (1) high-speed shaking phenomenon at low conicity of λ e < 0.10 after rail grinding [21]; (2) central hollow tread wear is eventually formed in long-term operations on dedicated lines with λ e ≥ 0.10 [17,20]; and (3) the service car body futtering phenomenon may occur accidentally and become more and more serious when λ e ≈ (0.30-0.35) [22,28]. So, how should we give a reasonable explanation for the formation mechanism of the above detrimental wear?…”

“…Except for the parallel combination of four ZF Sachs T70 dampers per bogie for long formation trains [20], the central hollow tread wear has been extended at present to all HSRS with novel antiyaw dampers like ZF Sachs T60, which causes the (shallow-) surface faults on wheel tread and railhead, or bogie vibration alarm, or more and more serious car body futtering phenomenon [21,22]. Te vibration comfort is then decreased rapidly in the middle foor, e.g., the lateral and vertical comfort indexes W z reaches or exceeds 4.0.…”

“…(a) Te self-adaptive improvement direction of higher-/ high-speed bogies is defned by using the analysis graph of full-vehicle stability properties and variation patterns and big data mining techniques such as orthogonal decomposition or modal modifcation, i.e., the nominal equivalent conicity λ eN ≥ λ emin , the minimum allowable value λ emin = (0.03-0.05) (b) By using the rigid-fex coupling simulation technique, the Finite Element Model (FEM) modifcation technique based on the load-type processing on component interfaces is used to further improve the transacting strategy of the fexible car body to MBS interface, and the inherent rigid-fex coupling relationship of the HSRS system is then reasonably constructed (c) By applying the three-stage variable step integration algorithm for forecast, correction, evaluation proposed by Negrut, and the correctness of Modal Stress Recovery (MSR) is ensured by the precise analysis results of complex constrained inner forces [19,20], thus realizing the seamless integration with Dong's structural stress recovery and weld fatigue damage assessment methods…”

Multidiscipline design optimization for large-scale complex nonlinear dynamic system based on weak coupling interfaces

“…2 (d, e), the irrational condition of wheel-rail matching should be improved by the rail grinding with railhead profile modification, e.g. symmetrical trimming of railhead 60N [48]. Considering our own particularities, the rail grinding treatment is impossible to remove or eliminate the central hollow tread wear and associated negative impacts.…”