Initiation mechanism analysis of wheel polygonal wear on high-speed railway based on refined vibration model for ballastless track system

The wheel polygonal wear on high-speed railway exhibits constant high frequency excitation, which results in strong vibrations/noise and deteriorate railway systems. To get insight into the wheel polygonal wear mechanism, a refined vibration model of ballastless track comprising an improved fastener model and track-bed broadband modal model is proposed, and further its coupled dynamic model with the vehicle is established. The simulation scheme of wheel polygonal wear initiation and a wheel out-of-roundness growth rate index are proposed to measure the growth degree of wheel polygon at each order. The relevance between the wheel polygonal wear and wheel-rail coupled resonances is studied, and the time-varying characteristics of wheel-rail coupled vibration modes in a vehicle-discrete supporting track system are firstly clarified. On this basis, the initiation mechanism of wheel polygonal wear is revealed. The results suggest that the rail 3rd-order bending resonance between bogie wheels contribute significantly to wheel polygonal wear, which is attributed to the time-invariant modal shape of this rail 3rd-order bending vibration as well as the natural frequency consistent with the actual polygonal wear excitation. The effects of the fastener model/parameters and track-bed broadband vibrations on wheel polygonal wear are analyzed. The results show that the improved fastener model eliminates the error between the rail 3rd-bending modal frequency obtained based on the simple model and actual polygonal wear frequency. In addition, increasing the fastener damping and iron chair mass can significantly suppress wheel polygonal wear. Finally, the slight contribution of track-bed broadband vibrations to wheel polygonal wear is confirmed.

Automated summary

This study proposes an improved vibration model to understand the wheel polygonal wear mechanism on high-speed railways. Simulation schemes and indices are introduced to measure the growth degree of the wheel polygon at each order, and the correlation between wheel polygonal wear and wheel-rail coupled resonances is studied. The results show that both the track-bed vibrations and the improved fastener model have an impact on wheel polygonal wear, while the track-bed broadband modal vibrations have a minor contribution.