• International Journal of Railway
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.60-67
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• 2010

This paper deals with an experimental study on the wheel flange climbing of railway vehicles, which is a major factor leading to derailment. An experiment is carried out on a 1/5-scale model wheelset of a truck used on a standard-gauge track, which is placed on a roller rig. The lateral external force acting on the wheelset is ramped up until derailment occurs under the condition of a fixed attack angle and wheel-load unbalance ratio. Three parameters, the height of wheel lift, the lateral force, and the wheel load acting on the outer rail, are measured until derailment occurs. From these measurements, it is possible to observe the behavior of the wheelset and to elucidate how the attack angle, the wheel-load unbalance ratio and the lateral external force affect flange-climb derailment. Then, a numerical simulation is carried out using an analytical model based on a single wheelset. As a result, the flange-climb behavior observed in the experiment can be explained theoretically on the bases of the analytical results, although further improvement of the model is desired.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.38 no.7
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• pp.699-709
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• 2014

This paper proposes a new method for predicting the derailment of a running train under cross-wind conditions, using the single wheelset derailment theory. The conventional theories used for predicting the derailment due to cross-winds were developed under the assumption that derailment will always be of the roll-over type, thus neglecting other possible types such as wheel-climbing, which may occur under special driving conditions. In addition, these theories do not consider running conditions such as dynamic wheel-rail interactions and friction effects. The new method considers the effects of dynamic wheel-rail interaction as well as those of lateral acceleration, rail cant, and cross-winds. The results of this method were compared and verified with those of the conventional methods and numerical simulations.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.1-14
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• 2013

In this paper, a finite element analysis technique of rolling stock models for collision-induced derailments was suggested using rolling contacts for wheel-rail interaction. The collision-induced derailments of rolling stock can be categorized into two patterns of wheel-climb and wheel-lift according to the friction direction between wheel flange and rail. The wheel-climb derailment types are classified as Climb-up, Climb/roll-over and Roll-over-C types, and the wheel-lift derailment types as Slip-up, Slip/roll-over and Roll-over-L types. To verify the rolling contact simulations for wheel-rail interaction, dynamic simulations of a single wheelset using Recurdyn of Functionbay and Ls-Dyna of LSTC were performed and compared for the 6-typical derailments. The collision-induced derailment simulation of the finite element model of KHST (Korean High Speed Train) was conducted and verified using the theoretical predictions of a simplified wheel-set model proposed for each derailment type.

• International Journal of Railway
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.83-88
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• 2008

Since the 1990's the fleet of the Dutch Railways showed a dramatic decrease in wheel tyre life. This lifetime reduction led to an unacceptable increase in life cycle costs. Therefore Lloyd's Register Rail has proposed to NedTrain to investigate the possibilities of improving the wheel tyre life. Three improvements were determined as most promising and relatively easy to achieve: - Profile optimisation for Rolling Contact Fatigue (RCF) reduction - a new wheel profile has been developed with a better resistance against rolling contact fatigue of the wheel tread. The profile has been implemented on single deck intercity trains and shows an increase in wheel tyre life of 30%. - Selection of improved wheel tyre materials - combining information from literature and experiences of manufacturers five alternative wheel tyre materials have been selected and are now being tested in practice. - Optimisation of the maintenance strategy - an alternative, preventative maintenance regime has been developed. With this Scraping regime, during short term maintenance every wheel is reprofiled. Higher mileages are reached and savings on life cycle costs up to 50% and more have been achieved. Unplanned maintenance goes down with $30{\sim}60%$. The results from field tests, using a reference group for comparison, and preliminary results after implementation show that the increase in wheel tyre life that is achieved with this project is significant. The results will continue to be monitored using the asset management tool 'Wheel Watch', that was specially developed for this project and is also described in this paper.