Optimisation design of grinding rail profile of metro lines for small radius curved track based on the GFC method: a case study

Abstract

The rail side wear in small radius curved track of metro lines is a serious problem in railway maintenance, which reduces the curve passing performance and shortens the service life of the wheel and rail. To improve the vehicle's curve passing performance and reduce rail wear, a localized grinding profile design method for sharp curves was developed. The GFC profile generation method was used to generate the profiles for the curved track of the metro line. Then a metro vehicle-track dynamic model was established to calculate the wheel rail contact parameters, objectives and constraints. The profiles are optimized by the KSM-PSO optimization algorithm. Finally, a simulation analysis of the curve passing performance and wheel-rail wear of the optimized profile was carried out. When the metro vehicle passes through the curved track with a curve radius of 450m, the optimized rail profile can effectively reduce the wear of the rail, the wear of the high rail in the curved track is reduced by 20.18%. The localized rail grinding of the curved track can effectively reduce the rail side wear, the GQI index is also significantly improved. This study can guide the design of rail grinding profiles for the metro lines.

KEYWORDS:

• Rail profile design
• GFC method
• wheel rail contact
• the small radius curved track
• rail grinding

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number U2268211, 51975485, 52302467], China Railway Science [grant number 2022YJ238], Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province [grant number 2022NSFSC1887], the open project of Key Laboratory of Urban Rail Transit Intelligent Operation and Maintenance Technology & Equipment of Zhejiang Province [grant number ZSDRTKF2023003].