Analysis and modeling of unsteady effects within the wheel-rail contact

Abstract

The traction characteristic of the wheel-rail contact is of high importance, e.g., for vehicle dynamics, and for the transmission of forces during traction and braking. This characteristic is influenced by fast changes of mechanical parameters, e.g., creepages, normal loads and coefficient of friction during the movement of the train. CONTACT, which is based on Kalker’s Theory, is able to describe these unsteady effects for low creepages (there are adhesion and slip at the same time) but it is unsuitable for Multi Body System (MBS) simulations due to its high computational effort. Therefore, a linearised model, called Unsteady Brush Model (UBM), is presented in this thesis that can be used in combination with MBS software. The results of the UBM agree qualitatively with the results of CONTACT