Cause Analysis of Rail Corrugation Based on Stick-slip Characteristics

By analyzing the measured corrugation data, the cause of rail corrugation was discussed theoretically. Then, the vehicle-track coupling model was used to study the stick-slip characteristics of wheel-rail system. Finally, the cause of rail corrugation was explained by combining modal analysis and wheel-rail stick-slip relation. The transverse stick-slip curve on the inner rail-inner wheel of the leading wheelset presents a negative slope characteristic, which makes the inner wheel easy to slide on the inner rail surface and aggravates the wear of inner rail; there are also negative slope sections of the stick-slip curve on the outer rail-outer wheel of the trailing wheelset, but the adhesion coefficient is relatively large, indicating that the outer wheel will not slide obviously and the wear is relatively small. Meantime, with the increase of line curve radius, the negative slope phenomenon of stick-slip curves on the inner and outer rail sides shows a decreasing trend, which illustrates that the sliding wear of wheel is gradually reduced, and thus the occurrence probability of rail corrugation decreases. Combined with modal analysis, it can be seen that the coupling action of wheel discs bending vibration and inner rail bending-torsional vibration is the main cause of rail corrugation under the condition of wheel-rail system with stick-slip negative slope.