Effect of small harmonic oscillations during the steady rolling of a cylinder on a plane

If a wheel rolling over a rail transmits a tangential traction, frictional microslip occurs in part of the contact area, resulting in energy dissipation and localized wear. If the applied forces oscillate in time, the resulting wear will be non-uniform, resulting in ‘corrugations’ that can grow with progressive passes, depending on the dynamics of the overall system. In this paper, a linear perturbation method is used to obtain closed-form expressions for the receptance of a two-dimensional rolling contact subjected to small oscillations in normal force and rotational speed superposed on a mean value in the limit of large coefficient of friction. Corresponding expressions are also obtained for the amplitude and phase of the energy dissipation in the contact, which is expected to correlate with the local wear rate. The results are compared with a simpler Winkler model of the contact and with other models that have been used for the analysis of rail corrugation. Surprisingly good agreement is obtained with numerical results due to Gross-Thebing for the receptances due to oscillations in rotational speed. & 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.