Influence of sleeper support stiffness and damping on wear-type rail corrugation on a tight curve

According to Brockley's theory that friction-induced vibration causes rail corrugation,an elastic vibration model of a wheelset-track system when a vehicle passed steadily through a tight curve was established.The model included a wheelset,two rails and a series of sleeper support springs and dampers.In the model,the creep forces between wheels and rails were assumed to be saturated and equal to the normal contact forces multiplied by a friction coefficient.The motion stability of the model was analyzed using ABAQUS package.It was found that when the friction coefficient μ0.28,there are propensities of unstable self-excited vibration which is a possible cause to lead to the short-pitch corrugation on the low rail.The influence of the sleeper support stiffness and damping on rail corrugation was studied with the model.The results showed that softer sleeper support stiffness and appropriate damping may suppress rail corrugation.It was also found that similar to the discrete sleeper support,the continuous sleeper support can not eliminate wear-type rail corrugation fully.