Design of Rail Profile to Reduce Wear of Rail in Curve

초록

Urban railway consists of many curved track. Contact phenomenon between wheel and rail, particularly in the curved railway, has influences upon the damage of rail, dynamic behavior of railway vehicle, vibration and noise, etc. The contact phenomenon of railway vehicle mainly depends on geometric shapes in terms of wheel and rail. In the context of optimization of the geometric shape for wheel or rail, researches have been carried out to resolve the above mentioned design problems. Grinding rail is mostly carried out by an operational experience or an intuitive inference. In the context of a rational grinding practice of rail, this paper explores an optimum design of asymmetric rail head profiles based on genetic algorithm (GA) to minimize a severe wear between wheel and rail happening at a sharp curved railway. Variables generating the rail profile are consist of different numbers of locations in regard to both low rail that is contacted on field part and high rail that is contacted on gauge corner part in order to minimize computational cost. The profile of rail is generated by PCHIP (Piecewise Cubic Hermite Interpolating Polynomial). This paper explores optimum rail profile of curved track based on the GA and the dynamic analyses using VAMPIRE to reduce the wear damages at sharp curved track. The objective function decides wear which affects in Rail damages, and design constraints consist of derailment, lateral force, and wheel unloading which are critical to safety to guarantee the dynamic performances of train. It is expected that durable lives of wheel and rail are improved via the reduction of wear of rail and wheel at the sharp curved track.