Influence of Eccentric Wheel–Rail Impact Loading on Rail Stress in Fixed Railway Crossings

Paper in proceeding, 2026

The effect of eccentric loading on the structural response of the crossing rail that occurs
when a vehicle passes in the trailing direction (move) through a crossing panel,
i.e. when the wheel transitions from the crossing nose to the wing rail, is studied utilising
two models that employ different representations of the crossing rail. One model
is based on beam finite elements with step-wise varying properties to capture the variation
in geometry, while the other uses 3D solid elements representing the complete rail
geometry. The results show that the stress state is predominantly uniaxial. While the
Euler-Bernoulli bending stress provides an accurate description of the bending stress
caused by the impact in the facing move, it significantly underestimates the bending
stress that occurs in the trailing move due to the eccentric position of the impact load
on the wing rail. By including the contribution due to Vlasov torsion in the bending
stress evaluation, the bending stress in the crossing rail can be accurately represented
for both facing and trailing moves using beam elements.