A new solution method for wheel/rail rolling contact.

Area of Science:

• Mechanical Engineering
• Computational Mechanics
• Railway Engineering

Background:

• Nonlinear steady-state curving in wheel/rail rolling contact presents significant computational challenges.
• Traditional implicit-explicit methods can be inefficient for large-scale, highly nonlinear finite element (FE) models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a more efficient solution method for analyzing wheel/rail rolling contact dynamics.
• To improve the computational speed and efficiency of three-dimensional transient FE models.

Main Methods:

• A three-dimensional transient finite element (FE) model was developed using ANSYS/LS-DYNA.
• An explicit-explicit order solution method was proposed and compared against the standard implicit-explicit method.
• The explicit-explicit method involved using explicit algorithm results for pre-loading as initial conditions for the dynamic process.

Main Results:

• The explicit-explicit order solution method demonstrated significantly faster operation speed and higher efficiency.
• Solution accuracy was comparable between the explicit-explicit and implicit-explicit methods.
• The proposed method is well-suited for large-scale, highly nonlinear wheel/rail contact FE models.

Conclusions:

• The explicit-explicit solution method offers a superior balance of speed, efficiency, and accuracy for wheel/rail contact simulations.
• This method is particularly advantageous for complex dynamic analyses in railway engineering.
• The findings suggest a more efficient approach for simulating critical rail-vehicle interactions.