Investigation into Mechanism of Low Rail Corrugation in Curve Section Track with Cologne-Egg Rail Fasteners

Severe rail corrugation often occurred on low rail in curve track where Cologne-egg rail fasteners are adopted; however, rail corrugation on high rail is weak or hardly present. This phenomenon leads to its limited application for Cologne-egg rail fasteners. Existing theories cannot explain this phenomenon. Due to the low stiffness and damping of the track with Cologne-egg rail fasteners lead to the vibration wave interference between the wheels, which causes the strong coupling effect between multiple wheels, and form the difference by impacting the interaction force between high and low rail superelevation at the same time, which has an important influence on the production of rail corrugation. Therefore, in this work the wheel–rail dynamic model for curve track with Cologne-egg rail fasteners first is established. The multi-wheel–rail dynamic characteristics is calculated, and the influence of static forces on the dynamic wheel–rail interaction forces and rail corrugation under the surplus superelevation is investigated. The results show that the wear on the rail experiencing higher static forces is smaller, on the contrary it is larger. Furthermore, the dynamic wheel–rail contact forces are influenced by static wheel–rail forces experienced by the high and low rails, thusly rail corrugation. The main reason, why rail corrugation on low rail in curve resilient track is severer than that on high rail, is closely related to the inadequate supper elevation, in addition to the strong coupling effect between multiple wheels and rail.