A time domain model for wheel/rail interaction aiming to include non-linear contact stiffness and tangential friction

A time domain model is presented for the dynamic interaction between a railway wheel and rail, which takes into account the non-linear processes in the contact zone and aims at predicting both normal and tangential contact forces. The model follows an approach that has been used successfully, for instance for the modelling of the interaction between road and tyre. Track and wheel are described as linear systems by the means of impulse response functions. The contact zone is modelled by non-linear contact springs with stiffnesses depending on the roughness of rail and wheel. Here, the method of the area of real contact is applied in order to obtain the required spring characteristics. For the tangential contact, a characteristic function for the friction coefficient is applied. In a first stage, the approach is demonstrated for the calculation of normal contact forces. For validation, the results from the model are compared with an existing time domain model that itself has been validated by field testing. Very good agreement is found for different types of roughness excitation.