Phantom element method for calculation of normal wheel/rail contact forces based on semi-Hertzian method

A new method is presented to create a wheel/rail contact model using virtual penetration theory. The concept of “isosceles pairs geometrical correspondence” is developed to determine the contact angle of each element independently. Using local linearisation, the contact area is divided to enable the use of a non-Hertzian 3D model for the wheel/rail contact problem. An advantage of this model is the low calculation cost of simulation of normal wheel/rail contact forces. Several numerical examples are presented to examine the accuracy of the developed method. It is shown that the proposed method appropriately models the wheel/rail contact phenomenon.