The wheel–rail contact force is a crucial indicator for ensuring the secure operation of a heavy-load train. However, obtaining the real-time wheel–rail contact force of a heavy-load train is a challenging task as, due to safety considera...
Traditional methods for identifying wheel–rail contact loads are based on deterministic models, in which the uncertainties such as material inhomogeneity and geometric tolerance are not considered. For wheel–rail contact load analysis wit...
Ballasted railway track is typically constructed using sleepers that are manufactured from a common material type within a given length of track. Timber and concrete are the two most common sleeper materials used internationally. Evidence from histor...
In this study, the measured track impact factor induced by the wheel–rail contact impact force of each test section (two continuous welded rails on slab tracks and rail joint on a ballasted track) was compared with the design track impact facto...
Rolling contact fatigue cracks in rail and wheel undergo non-proportional mixed mode I/II/III loading. Fatigue tests were performed to determine the coplanar and branch crack growth rates on these materials. Sequential and overlapping mode I and III...
Fatigue tests were performed to estimate the coplanar and branch crack growth rates on rail and wheel steel under non-proportional mixed mode I/II loading cycles simulating the load on rolling contact fatigue cracks; sequential and overlapping mode I...
The repeatability of rail wheel damage measurements is considered in this study. The authors investigated the measurement repeatability of vertical force dependence on wheel-rolling surface damage nature and suggested ways to reach higher repeatabili...
Tread braking is still extensively used on freight wagons due to lower purchasing and maintenance costs compared to disk braking. Cast iron brake blocks were replaced by composite materials (organic or sintered) that result in a lower wheel roughness...
The rail pad is the elastic element between the rail and the sleeper that has the role of absorbing the mechanical stresses from the rail and reducing the vibrations and shocks generated by wheel–rail interactions. In this paper, the problem of...
Polygonal wear affects driving safety and drastically shortens a wheel’s life. This work establishes a wheel–rail coupled system’s rotor dynamics model and a wheel polygonal wear model, taking into account the wheelset’s flexi...
The bogie gearbox bearing is one of the critical components in the running gear of trains, and its dynamic characteristics significantly influence the safety and stability of the entire system. In addition to internal excitations within the gearbox,...
The generation of wheel–rail-sliding frictional heat is often accompanied by transverse displacement of a wheel. To study the thermal problem of wheel–rail sliding friction at two-point contact, this paper uses an LM tread wheel and a 60...
Low adhesion conditions can lead to significant wheel slip during braking for high-speed trains, resulting in severe wheel–rail rolling contact fatigue issues. The objective of this paper is to reproduce the dynamic wheel–rail adhesion ch...
Surface initiated rolling contact fatigue (RCF), mainly characterized by cracks and material stripping, is a common type of damage to turnout rails, which can not only shorten service life of turnout but also lead to poor running safety of vehicle. T...
Wheel polygonization and rail corrugation are typical forms of periodic wheel-rail surface damage occurring on metro vehicles. Their interaction produces coupled dynamic excitation that modifies wheel–rail contact behavior under wet, low-adhesi...
In order to further theoretical and experimental research on adhesion recovery, an innovative new test-rig for wheel–rail contact experiments under large slip conditions was developed. The wheel-on-ring category of test-rig was determined to pr...
Long-span railway bridges crossing active faults are more vulnerable owing to the joint combination of pulse ground motions and surface dislocation. To study the dynamic effects resulting from the coupling of long-span railway suspension bridges cros...
The study of wear that occurs during operation in the wheel–rail assembly is a difficult process to analyze. The phenomena that accompany the wear process are extremely complex and involve many factors, which vary greatly over different periods...
The wet-rail phenomenon can cause low adhesion, which negatively affects railway operation. It is believed to occur when small amounts of water mix with solid particles on wheel and rail surfaces, e.g., wear debris or iron oxides, forming a dense sus...
The tribological properties of steels used to realise railway wheels play a fundamental role in the performances of both vehicle and infrastructure. In particular, the wear process, caused by the wheel–rail interaction, modifies the shape of wh...
With the rapid development of railway towards being high speed and having heavy load capacity, the wheel–rail wear and rolling contact fatigue in the curve section with a small radius of freight have become the key problems in urban railways, w...
With China’s high-speed rail network undergoing rapid expansion, turnouts constitute critical elements whose safety and stability are essential to railway operation. At present, the efficiency of wheel–rail force safety monitoring conduct...
The assessment of wheel–rail force states is a key technical issue in the safety monitoring of high-speed railway turnouts. Due to the complex geometry and severe load fluctuations of turnouts, wheel–rail interactions exhibit strong nonli...
In railway operation, the sanding process is used to overcome low adhesion conditions in the wheel–rail contact. In the literature, previously conducted research has been experimental, e.g., measuring adhesion coefficients (ACs) under different...
Rail corrugation causes various problems such as a decrease in ride comfort due to aggravation of train noise and vibration, and an increase in the amount of track component maintenance due to the amplification of the track impact. Most of the preced...
The frictional issues during motion of the axis-wheels assembly occurring in contact wheel–rail and in bogie bearing were studied. The influence of greases upon friction therein was also considered. The lateral dynamic behavior of the four-axle...
Ensuring the safety of rail networks requires precise detection of a train’s position on a track section. This is achieved using a “track circuit” system, in which the wheel–rail electrical contact is the key to maintaining th...
The dynamic response of a vehicle during braking is influenced by the tangential forces developed at the wheel-rail’s contact surface. The friction coefficient affects the load transfer from the wheel’s tread to the vehicle. In this work,...
To address the complex and highly variable wheel–rail adhesion behavior on high-speed railway curves, this study establishes a numerical wheel–rail rolling contact model based on starved elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) theory and Her...
When a railway train runs along a curved track with braking, the dynamic behaviors of the vehicle are extremely complex and difficult to accurately reveal due to the coupling effects between the wheel–rail interactions and the disc–pad fr...
The wheel–rail impact effect is prominent in the low vibration track (LVT) in the curved sections of heavy-haul railways, where fastener failure and the support block hanging void are prone to occurring. To investigate the impact of these issue...
The paper describes the design and calibration of an innovative scaled twin-disc test rig, which enables the investigation of both the wheel–rail and wheel–shoe contact interactions. The design of the main bench components, including the...
Wheel flats have become a major problem affecting the long-term service of railway systems. Wheels with flats create intermittent impact loads to trains and rails. This not only accelerates the deterioration of vehicle and track components but also l...
Repeated wheel–rail interaction under millions of load cycles causes rolling contact fatigue, plastic deformation, and long-term rail degradation. Increasing axle loads, speeds, and traffic demand require an understanding of how rail steels res...
Lubrication between the rail gauge face and wheel flange is necessary to improve vehicle performance and reduce component wear. One way to achieve this is to use a solid stick loaded against the wheel flange. This paper details twin-disc testing of e...
This study investigates a load-based, track-irregularity-analysis technique for ballasted tracks on a serviced railway line with respect to excavation work conducted in adjacent sites. A numerical analysis and field measurements (railbed-settlement-m...
Prolonged rolling contact fatigue between wheels and rails results in the formation of surface cracks on the rail and accurately analyzing the crack expansion behavior is essential to ensuring the safe operation of the train. Drawing upon the princip...
A low-floor train–turnout coupling dynamic model considering bad alignment irregularity ahead of the turnout was established on the basis of a field test in which the dynamic performances of a low-floor train passing through a no. 6 turnout in...
During frequent starting and braking of metro vehicles, wheel–rail contact may change from pure rolling to full slip, and the frictional heat generated at the interface can induce localised rail damage such as rail burns. Because the motion sta...
Railway wheel tread flat is one of the main faults of railway wheels, which brings great harm to the safety of vehicle operation. In order to detect wheel flats dynamically and quantitatively when trains are running at high speed, a new wheel flat de...
To investigate the propagation behavior of thermal cracks on the wheel tread under the conditions of long downhill ramps, a three-dimensional finite element model of a 1/16 wheel, including an initial thermal crack, was developed using the finite ele...
With the rapid development of urban rail transportation, environmental vibrations caused by subways operating are becoming more serious. They have affected people’s living comfort, the stability of precision scientific instruments, and the safe...
This study develops a quantitative framework to assess performance degradation and damage evolution in CRTS I ballastless track slabs. Based on the impact-echo method, the internal void distribution characteristics of the new and old track slabs were...
Wheel flat can cause a large impact between the wheel and rail and excites a forced vibration in the locomotive and track structure systems. The working conditions and fatigue life of the motor bearings are significantly affected by the intensified w...
The authors have previously proposed and tested a method for increasing the wear resistance of heavy-loaded friction pairs by saturating industrial lubricants with the metallic nanopowder of the friction pair’s component that has a lower hardne...
The dynamic behavior of a double-beam configuration subjected to a harmonic moving load was studied in this paper. The model was built to represent the wheel–track system that was composed of two infinite Timoshenko beams joined by uniformly sp...
Trains are used as the fastest mode of transportation for both people and cargo. The train moves along a special path called “rail”, where fatigue can be accumulated due to wheel-rail contact load as a result of continuous train operation. Consistent...
Wheel flats are amongst the most common local surface defect in railway wheels, which can result in repetitive high wheel–rail contact forces and thus lead to rapid deterioration and possible failure of wheels and rails if not detected at an ea...
The wheelset coaxial wheel diameter difference is one of the most common wheel faults of railway vehicles. The existence of the wheelset coaxial wheel diameter difference may lead to the off-load operation of vehicles, resulting in abnormal wheel tre...
This study examines the modernization of the 61-4179 TVZ passenger coach for transporting light automobiles up to 3 tons, addressing the efficiency of multifunctional rail use. The objective was to assess how additional mass–dimensional loading...
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