THE INFLUENCE OF THE RAIL INCLINATION AND LATERAL SHIFT ON PRESSURE DISTRIBUTION IN WHEEL - RAIL CONTACT

Constantin-Ioan BARBINŢĂ
costelbarbinta@yahoo.com

Spiridon CREŢU
spcretu@mail.tuiasi.ro


Machine Design Department, “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University – Iasi, ROMANIA

Abstract.  Even though the UIC60 wheel profile and the S1002 rail are the most used combination in the European rail transportation, the interoperability is affected by the different rail inclination that varies between the values of 1/40 and 1/20. The hunting motion and the specific train motion in curve determine a permanently lateral shift of the axle and, consequently, a permanent change of the initial wheel-rail contact point. To find out the influence of these modifications on pressure distributions, a fast and robust algorithm has been used to solve the stress state in the general case of non-Hertzian contacts. Brent’s method has been involved to find the contact point for the unload conditions. To limit the pressure, an elastic-perfectly plastic material has been incorporated into the computer code.
 

Keywords:  rail, wheel, lateral shift, rail inclination, pressure distributions

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