Wheel-rail contact models in the presence of switches and crossings

Abstract

The development and implementation of wheel-rail contact models in multibody codes are two active research topics, aiming at improving the accuracy of numerical results and computational efficiency of the dynamics analysis. However, the realism of numerical results is challenged when considering switches and crossings (S&C), where the most adverse wheel-rail contact conditions occur. This paper presents a benchmark study where the performance of the multibody codes MUBODyn, VOCO and VI-Rail are assessed using three case scenarios that involve typical contact conditions observed in S&C. A focused description of the relevant methods to determine the wheel-rail contact forces is presented for each software. The three scenarios considered in this work have been designed to represent typical challenging contact conditions observed in S&C, i.e. conformal contact, contact with a sharp edge, and impact loads. The scenarios proposed in this work are fully described, making them easily reproducible. The agreement between results is discussed in the framework of the methods implemented in each code. This work highlights the impact of wheel-rail contact methods on the results as well as on the computational efficiency of the multibody codes.

KEYWORDS:

• Switches and crossings
• wheel-rail contact
• multibody simulation
• conformal contact
• impact modelling

Acknowledgements

The second author is supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under grant PD/BD/114154/2016, MIT Portugal Program. This work has been supported by FCT with the reference project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028424, by FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização. This work is also supported by FCT with the reference project UIDB/04436/2020 and through IDMEC, under LAETA, project UIDB/50022/2020. The authors from the VOCO team would like to thank the Association Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie (ANRT), and ESI Group for their financial support under the CIFRE [grant number 2017/1097].

Disclosure statement

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

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Association Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie (ANRT) and ESI Group: [Grant Number grant number 2017/1097]; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia: [Grant Number PD/BD/114154/2016,POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028424,UIDB/04436/2020,UIDB/50022/2020].