The influence of track geometry irregularities on rolling contact fatigue

Paper in proceeding, 2012

Optimised maintenance of railway tracks requires knowledge of how a deteriorated track geometry will affect subsequent damage of the track. In this study the influence on rolling contact fatigue (RCF) is investigated through numerical simula- tions. The numerical simulations employ a vehicle model of a freight wagon run on tracks with a single track irregularity or with irregularities generated from a power spectral density. Evaluated RCF impact is correlated to the track geometry to identify intrinsic properties of track geometry and irregularities that promote surface initiated rolling contact fatigue. On tangent track simulations predict a single lateral irregularity with amplitude of 6 mm and wavelength less than 20 m to be sufficient to cause RCF. For curves with a radius of 1250 metres simulations employing generated lateral irregularities indicate that the most efficient RCF mitigation measure is to reduce the longwave content of the lateral irregularities.