Field Measurement and Mechanism Analysis of Rail Corrugation on Steel Spring Floating Slab Track Section

Abstract

In this study, a combination method of field measurements and numerical simulations is used to investigate the mechanism of rail corrugation in the curve’s inner rail in urban rail transit. Firstly, field measurements on rail corrugation and rail vibration characteristics were conducted on the steel spring floating slab track (SSFST) section of a metro line; secondly, a three-dimensional finite element model of the wheelset-SSFST was established, and complex eigenvalue analysis and transient analysis were conducted. It was found that the main frequency of measured rail vertical vibration and the simulated wheel–rail—which simulated normal contact force on the inner rail—correspond to the first wheel–rail unstable vibration mode, as well as to the field-measured rail corrugation passing frequency. Therefore, the strong agreement between the results of the field measurements and the numerical simulation further verifies that the frictional, self-excited vibration of the wheelset-SSFST system on a sharply curved track can cause rail corrugation. When the vertical and lateral fasteners’ stiffness increases, the possibility of rail corrugation decreases. The decrease in vertical stiffness of the steel spring leads to an increase in the possibility of rail corrugation, but the lateral stiffness changes in the steel spring have almost no effect on the possibility of rail corrugation. The increase in the wheel–rail contact friction coefficient leads to a sharp increase in the trend of rail corrugation occurrence and causes a decrease in the rail corrugation wave-length.