Wheel∕Rail Two-Point Contact Geometry With Back-of-Flange Contact

Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Sugiyama ◽  
Yoshihiro Suda

In this investigation, a numerical procedure that can be used for the analysis of a wheel and rail contact geometry is developed using the constraint contact formulation. The locations of contact points are determined for given lateral and yaw displacements of a wheelset when one-point contact is considered for each wheel, while these two displacements are no longer independent when the two-point contact occurs. A systematic procedure for predicting the flange, as well as the back-of-flange contact points, is developed and used for the two-point contact geometry analysis of a wheel and rail. Numerical results that involve tread, flange, and back-of-flange contacts are presented in order to demonstrate the use of the contact algorithm developed in this investigation. In particular, the back-of-flange contact is discussed for assessing contact configurations of a wheel and a grooved rail in light rail vehicle applications.

Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Sugiyama ◽  
Yoshihiro Suda

In this investigation, a numerical procedure that can be used for the three-dimensional analysis of wheel and rail contact geometry is developed using the constraint contact formulation. The locations of contact points are determined for given lateral and yaw displacements of a wheelset when one-point contact is considered for each wheel, while these two displacements are no longer independent when the two-point contact occurs. A systematic procedure for predicting the flange as well as the back-of-flange contact points is developed and used for the two-point contact analysis of wheel and rail. Numerical results that involve tread, flange, and back-of-flange contacts are presented in order to demonstrate the use of the contact algorithm developed in this investigation. In particular, the back-of-flange contact is discussed for assessing contact configurations of wheel and grooved rail in Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) applications.


Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Sugiyama ◽  
Yoshimitsu Tanii ◽  
Yoshihiro Suda

In this investigation, a numerical procedure that can be used for the analysis of wheel/rail two-point contact geometries in turnout sections is developed. In turnout section, the tongue rail changes its shape along the track. Cross-sectional shapes of the tongue rail, therefore, need to be generated by interpolations along the rail and these profiles are used to determine the location of contact points for given location of wheelset along the track trajectory. Numerical examples of wheel/rail contact in point section are presented in order to demonstrate the use of the procedure developed in this investigation and the effect of wheel profiles on the contact configuration in turnout section is discussed.


Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Sugiyama ◽  
Yoshimitsu Tanii ◽  
Ryosuke Matsumura

In this investigation, a numerical procedure that can be used for the analysis of wheel/rail two-point contact geometries in turnout sections is developed. In turnout section, the tongue rail changes its shape along the track. Cross-sectional shapes of the tongue rail, therefore, need to be generated by interpolations along the track and these profiles are used to determine the location of contact points for the given location of wheelset. Several numerical examples are presented in order to demonstrate the use of the procedure developed in this investigation and the effect of wheel profiles on contact geometry in turnout section is discussed.


Author(s):  
Shunpei Yamashita ◽  
Hiroyuki Sugiyama

In this investigation, a numerical procedure for wheel/rail contact problems in the analysis of curve negotiation of railroad vehicles is developed using constraint/elastic contact approach. In particular, this work focuses on the flange contact detection algorithm using the two-point look-up contact table and the switching algorithm from the elastic to constraint contact for the flange climb simulation. The two-point look-up contact table is used for the contact search of the second point of contact modeled using the elastic contact, while the constraint contact is used for the first point of contact on the wheel tread. Furthermore, in the flange climb simulation using the constraint contact formulation, loss of a tread contact modeled using the constraint contact occurs. Therefore, the elastic contact used for modeling the flange contact in the two-point contact state needs to be switched to the constraint contact as soon as loss of the tread contact occurs. For this reason, if the Lagrange multiplier associated with the contact constraint becomes greater than or equal to zero, the elastic contact used for the flange is switched to the constraint contact. The computational algorithm for the proposed switching algorithm is also presented. Several numerical examples are presented in order to demonstrate the use of the numerical procedure developed in this investigation for modeling the two-point tread/flange contact as well as the flange climb behavior. Numerical results are in good agreement with those of the existing fully elastic contact formulation. Furthermore, it is shown that significant reduction in CPU time is achieved using the numerical procedure developed in this investigation.


Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Sugiyama ◽  
Takuto Sekiguchi ◽  
Ryosuke Matsumura ◽  
Shunpei Yamashita ◽  
Yoshihiro Suda

In this investigation, a numerical procedure that can be used for solving complex wheel/rail contact problems in turnout is proposed. In particular, a combined nodal and non-conformal contact approach is developed such that significant jumps in contact points are detected using the nodal search, while the exact location of contact point is then determined with continuous surface parameterizations using non-conformal contact equations. With this combined nodal and non-conformal contact approach for the contact geometry analysis of vehicle/turnout interactions, multiple look-up contact tables can be generated in an efficient way without losing accuracy. Since detailed contact search is performed offline to obtain look-up contact tables, significant changes in contact points in turnout can be efficiently predicted online with tabular data to be interpolated in a standard way. Several numerical examples are presented in order to demonstrate the use of the numerical procedure developed in this investigation.


Author(s):  
Ling-Kun Chen ◽  
Peng Liu ◽  
Li-Ming Zhu ◽  
Jing-Bo Ding ◽  
Yu-Lin Feng ◽  
...  

Near-fault (NF) earthquakes cause severe bridge damage, particularly urban bridges subjected to light rail transit (LRT), which could affect the safety of the light rail transit vehicle (“light rail vehicle” or “LRV” for short). Now when a variety of studies on the fault fracture effect on the working protection of LRVs are available for the study of cars subjected to far-reaching soil motion (FFGMs), further examination is appropriate. For the first time, this paper introduced the LRV derailment mechanism caused by pulse-type near-fault ground motions (NFGMs), suggesting the concept of pulse derailment. The effects of near-fault ground motions (NFGMs) are included in an available numerical process developed for the LRV analysis of the VBI system. A simplified iterative algorithm is proposed to assess the stability and nonlinear seismic response of an LRV-reinforced concrete (RC) viaduct (LRVBRCV) system to a long-period NFGMs using the dynamic substructure method (DSM). Furthermore, a computer simulation software was developed to compute the nonlinear seismic responses of the VBI system to pulse-type NFGMs, non-pulse-type NFGMs, and FFGMs named Dynamic Interaction Analysis for Light-Rail-Vehicle Bridge System (DIALRVBS). The nonlinear bridge seismic reaction determines the impact of pulses on lateral peak earth acceleration (Ap) and lateral peak land (Vp) ratios. The analysis results quantify the effects of pulse-type NFGMs seismic responses on the LRV operations' safety. In contrast with the pulse-type non-pulse NFGMs and FFGMs, this article's research shows that pulse-type NFGM derail trains primarily via the transverse velocity pulse effect. Hence, this study's results and the proposed method can improve the LRT bridges' seismic designs.


Author(s):  
Quan Gu ◽  
Jinghao Pan ◽  
Yongdou Liu

Consistent tangent stiffness plays a crucial role in delivering a quadratic rate of convergence when using Newton’s method in solving nonlinear equations of motion. In this paper, consistent tangent stiffness is derived for a three-dimensional (3D) wheel–rail interaction element (WRI element for short) originally developed by the authors and co-workers. The algorithm has been implemented in finite element (FE) software framework (OpenSees in this paper) and proven to be effective. Application examples of wheelset and light rail vehicle are provided to validate the consistent tangent stiffness. The quadratic convergence rate is verified. The speeds of calculation are compared between the use of consistent tangent stiffness and the tangent by perturbation method. The results demonstrate the improved computational efficiency of WRI element when consistent tangent stiffness is used.


Author(s):  
Pankaj Sharma ◽  
Anupam Saxena ◽  
Ashish Dutta

The study of multi-agent capture and manipulation of an object has been an area of active interest for many researchers. This paper presents a novel approach using Genetic Algorithm to determine the optimal contact points and the total number of agents (mobile robots) required to capture a stationary generic 2D polygonal object. After the goal points are determined the agents then reach their respective goals using a decentralized projective path planning algorithm. Form closure of the object is obtained using the concept of accessibility angle. The object boundary is first expanded and the robots reach the expanded object goal points and then converge on the actual object. This ensures that the agents reach the actual goal points at the same time and have the correct orientation. Frictionless point contact between the object and robots is assumed. The shape of the robot is considered a circle such that it can only apply force in outward radial direction from its center and along the normal to the object boundary at the contact point. Simulations results are presented that prove the effectiveness of the proposed method.


1977 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Cord ◽  
Peter R. Norton

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