Frictional contact FE analysis in a railway wheel-rail contact

Our investigation aimed to analyse the contact pressure distribution, the contact area and the sliding procedure in a railway wheel-rail contact by using finite element method. The analysis were created with linear elastic material model. The elaborated model provides opportunity to analyse the ini-tial sticking zone within the contact zone that disappears and transforms into full sliding contact due to the tangential dis-placement of the contact zone. In that state we examined the equivalent stress distribution under the surface in full sliding condition as well. Keywords contact pressure · Hertzian contact · wheel-rail contact · initial stick slip · full sliding