The Influence of Worn Wheels on Railway Vehicle Dynamics and on their Interaction with the Track

To improve the efficiency and competitiveness of the railway transport, passenger trains have to travel faster, with high levels of safety and comfort. Furthermore, the higher demands for transportation of goods require more efficient railway freight systems, which imply that freight vehicles are required to carry larger loads per axle. As a consequence, railway and infrastructure companies continuously increase the demands for vehicle requirements. These include maintaining the top operational speeds of trainsets during their life cycle, which requires assuring the wheel-rail contact quality. This is a key issue in vehicle design and in train operation since it has a significant impact on the safety and comfort of railway systems and on the maintenance costs of vehicles and infrastructures. The work presented here aims to analyse how the wear progression on the steel wheels affects the dynamic behaviour of trainsets and their interaction with the track. For this purpose a railway vehicle, assembled with new and worn wheels, is studied in realistic operation scenarios. The influence of the wheel profile's wear state on the vehicle dynamic response is assessed here based on several indicators used in the railway industry.