A Study on the Wheelset / Slab Track Vertical Interaction

This paper deals with the interaction between a moving wheelset and a slab track due to the shortpitch corrugated rail. The wheelset is modeled using a free-free Timoshenko beam with attached rigid bodies as the axle boxes, wheels and brake discs. The slab track model consists of elastically supported double EulerBernoulli beams. In fact, both wheelset and slab track are symmetric structures and the issue of the wheelset/slab track interaction is reduced to the wheel/rail interaction. The nonlinear equations of motion describing the wheelset/slab track interaction due to the short-pitch corrugated rail are solved using the timedomain Green’s functions method and the convolution theorem. The wheelset/slab track interaction due to the short-pitch corrugated rail exhibits a critical velocity when the vibration reaches the maximum level.