The wheel-rail contact is at the core of all research related to vehicletrackinteraction. This tiny interface governs the dynamic performanceof rail vehicles through the forces it transmits and, like any high stressconcentration zone, it is subjected to serious damage phenomena. Thus,a clear understanding of the rolling contact between wheel and rail is keyto realistic vehicle dynamics simulation and damage analysis. In a multi-body dynamics simulation, the demanding contact problemshould be evaluated at about every millisecond for several wheel-rail pairs.Hence, a rigorous treatment of the contact is highly time-consuming.Simplifying assumptions are therefore made to accelerate the simulationprocess. This gives rise to a trade-o between the accuracy and computationaleciency of the contact model in use. Conventionally, Hertz+FASTSIM is used for calculation of the contactforces thanks to its low computational cost. However, the elliptic patchand pressure distribution obtained by Hertz' theory is often not realisticin wheel-rail contact. Moreover, the use of parabolic traction bound inFASTSIM causes considerable error in the tangential stress estimation.This combination leads to inaccurate damage predictions. Fast non-elliptic contact models are proposed by others to tacklethis issue while avoiding the tedious numerical procedures. The studiesconducted in the present work show that the accuracy of these models iscase-dependent. To improve the accuracy of non-elliptic patch and pressure estimation,a new method is proposed. The method is implemented in an algorithmnamed ANALYN. Comparisons show improvements in patch and, particularly,pressure estimations using ANALYN. In addition, an alternative to the widely-used FASTSIM is developed, named FaStrip. Unlike FASTSIM, it employs an elliptic traction boundand is able to estimate the non-linear characteristic of tangential stressdistribution. Comparisons show more accurate estimation of tangentialstress and slip velocity distribution as well as creep forces with FaStrip. Ultimately, an ecient non-elliptic wheel-rail contact model consistingof ANALYN and FaStrip is proposed. The reasonable computationalcost of the model enables it to be used on-line in dynamics simulationand its accuracy can improve the damage predictions. / <p>QC 20160202</p>

The wheel-rail contact is at the core of all research related to vehicle-track interaction. This tiny interface governs the dynamic performance of rail vehicles through the loads it transmits and, like any high stress concentration zone, it is subjected to serious damage phenomena. Thus, a clear understanding of the rolling contact between wheel and rail is key to realistic vehicle dynamic simulation and damage analyses. In a multi-body-system simulation package, the essentially demanding contact problem should be evaluated in about every millisecond. Hence, a rigorous treatment of the contact is highly time consuming. Simplifying assumptions are, therefore, made to accelerate the simulation process. This gives rise to a trade-off between accuracy and computational efficiency of the contact models in use. Historically, Hertz contact solution is used since it is of closed-form. However, some of its underlying assumptions may be violated quite often in wheel-rail contact. The assumption of constant relative curvature which leads to an elliptic contact patch is of this kind. Fast non-elliptic contact models are proposed by others to lift this assumption while avoiding the tedious numerical procedures. These models are accompanied by a simplified approach to treat tangential tractions arising from creepages and spin. In this thesis, in addition to a literature survey presented, three of these fast non-elliptic contact models are evaluated and compared to each other in terms of contact patch, pressure and traction distributions as well as the creep forces. Based on the conclusions drawn from this evaluation, a new method is proposed which results in more accurate contact patch and pressure distribution estimation while maintaining the same computational efficiency. The experience gained through this Licentiate work illuminates future research directions among which, improving tangential contact results and treating conformal contacts are given higher priority. / <p>QC 20130911</p>