Finite Element Analysis of the Elastic-Plastic Contact of the Worn Wheels and Rails on Curve

Based on field measured wheel and rail profiles within the normal wear range on the small radius curve of the heavy haul railway,a three-dimensional wheel-rail contact model was established by using the finite element code ANSYS.In the model,the geometry and boundary conditions of the wheel and the rail were taken into account.The materials of the wheel and the rail were treated as elastic-plastic models with bilinear kinematic hardening property.The contact state of the wheels and the rails with different degrees of wear was calculated and analyzed. The results show that as the side wear of 75 kg·m-1 rail increases,the size of contact patch tends to increase while the von Mises equivalent stress of the rail decreases under the same load condition.Consequently,the wheel-rail contact state is improved due to the mutual matching of the wheel and the rail profiles.The wheel-rail contact state undergoes a big change and the rail is at a rapid wear stage when the side wear of the rail rises from 0 mm to 5 mm,and the rolling contact fatigues of the rail are liable to occur,such as fatigue cracks,shelling defects and so on.The change of the contact state is relatively steady when the side wear of the rail exceeds 5 mm,and so does the wear.