Investigation of Contact Stresses on the Wheel/Rail-System at Steady State Curving

Abstract

For different types of vehicles and a variety of measured lateral profiles of rails the contact stresses are calculated by means multibody system calculation, followed by a more accurate contact stress analysis. The results show that depending on the rail profiles, the occurring stresses can exceed the material's yield stresses significantly. Including several additional effects, the relation between occurring stresses and the initiation of micro cracks is discussed.