Dynamic response of vehicle-track interaction at the bolted rail joint in the presence of the polygonal wheel

Rail joints are the weakest link in the railway track structure due to the presence of discontinuities in the track stiffness and wheel-rail contact geometry. This paper presents the dynamic response of vehicle-track interaction at the bolted rail joint (BRJ) in the presence of polygonal wheel wear. A three-dimensional coupled vehicle-track dynamic model was established using the finite element method (FEM) and the multi-body system (MBS) approach, in which the flexibilities of the wheelset and track are taken into account. The proposed dynamic model is validated by the comparisons of field measurement and calculated vertical axle-box acceleration in time and frequency domains. The effects of the flexible wheelset in the presence of polygonal wear on the vehicle-track dynamic interaction at the BRJs are illustrated through comparisons with those obtained using without polygonal wheel model. The results show that the polygonal wheel wear and the rail joint irregularities can induce high-magnitude vertical wheel-rail contact force, and exacerbate the vibration responses of the axle box, the wheelset, and the rails. The simulation results also indicate that the wheelset bending modes, the P2 resonance due to rail joint excitation, and the track vibration modes have significant effects on the vertical vehicle-track dynamic interaction at the supported and suspended BRJs.