Analytical study and optimisation of wheel–rail wear on curved track under traction/braking conditions

Abstract

The traction/braking and lateral forces adversely affect the curve-passing performance of the railway vehicle, causing more severe wheel–rail wear problems. This paper investigates the wear mechanism on curved tracks and proposes an optimal strategy under traction/braking conditions based on the wear number analysis. Firstly, the creep force is linearised based on the stationary creepages generated by traction/braking, the wheelset curve passing model is then established by using the equivalent creep coefficient. Next, the wear number model under traction/braking conditions is modified, and the total wear number and asymmetrical wear number are proposed. The analysis reveals that traction/braking significantly exacerbates wheel–rail wear. Furthermore, the traction/braking torque of each axle is redistributed under the appropriate total torque requirements to optimise the wear problem. Then the influence of lateral external forces and system parameters such as the primary longitudinal stiffness and the conicity on the optimisation effect is studied. Finally, the optimisation strategy is applied to the railway vehicle dynamic simulation model with different radii to optimise the wear problem, and the vehicle's stability and safety on curved tracks is generally satisfactory.