Fundamental Studies Related to Wheel-Rail Contact Stress

摘要

This Final Report summarizes the research performed and provides a brief review of the major results of the program. The problems discussed include: the development of cost-effective methods for finding the wheel-rail contact patch, finding subsurface internal stresses, determining points where plastic flow will first occur, finding the distribution of surface shear stresses on the contact patch, finding the boundary between slip and adhesion on the contact patch, and finding the relationship between applied forces and wheel-rail creepage. This work will be useful in explaining, and devising means of preventing various forms of stress-induced rail and wheel failures, as well as a whole complex of problems related to wheel-rail guidance and tractive forces. In particular, the dynamic behavior of rail vehicles can be analyzed relative to the forces developed at the rail-wheel interface.