2406 Wheel/Rail Contact Geometry with Two-Point Contact

In this investigation, a numerical procedure that can be used for the analysis of wheel and rail contact geometry is developed using the constraint contact formulation. The location of the contact points are calculated for various lateral and yaw displacements of the wheelset when one-point contact is considered for each wheel, while these two displacements are no longer independent once the flange comes into contact with rail. A systematic procedure for predicting the flange contact point is developed and used for the initial estimate of the three-dimensional lead/lag flange contact analysis. It is shown that the location of the lead/lag flange contact varies in highly nonlinear manner for the change in the wheelset yaw displacement. Numerical results are presented in order to demonstrate the use of the contact algorithm developed in this investigation. The results obtained for a one-point wheel/rail contact problem shows good agreements with those obtained using the existing method that is limited to one-point contact problems. The lead/lag flange contact geometry analysis is performed and the three-dimensional change in the location of the contact point is clearly demonstrated using the method developed in this investigation. Furthermore, a simple method for predicting the location of the flange back contact point is presented.