Robust evaluation of rail damage and track forces using representative load collectives

Paper in proceeding, 2015

This paper presents a method for robust evaluation of rail damage and lateral wheel–rail contact force spectra for rail traffic in curves. To this end the Manchester Benchmarks passenger vehicle model is used and scatter in vehicle, suspension and wheel profile properties is accounted for in the generation of load collectives that are used for rail damage assessment. Rail wear and RCF damage are evaluated at different curve radii for load collectives of different size using Archard’s wear law and the Tγ RCF damage model. Variance in damage estimates are investigated and it is shown that variance is reduced at smaller curve radii for both damage criteria. It is also found that the variance is larger for the RCF damage estimate than for the wear calculations.