Investigation on wheel-rail contact behaviour and track damage due to track component defects

Cole, CR ORCiD: 0000-0001-8840-7136; Spiryagin, M ORCiD: 0000-0003-1197-898X; Wu, Q ORCiD: 0000-0001-9407-5617To investigate the rail damage due to wheelrail dynamic interactions, a new method is introduced which uses a parallel co-simulation technique to link a detailed in-house track model developed by using FORTRAN code with a detailed rail vehicle model using GENSYS. The co-simulation method can be applied to understand the dynamic performance characteristics of high axleload wagons to provide an accurate evaluation and assessment of rail damage based on existing rail damage modelling. The case studies due to ballast voids show that, besides the wheel-rail contact, the effect of rail bending to the rail damage is significant. © 2018 TU Delft