Wheel-Rail Slide Thermal-Elastic Coupled Analysis

To study the effects of temperature dependent nonlinear material properties on wheel-rail thermo-elastic contact, and compare behavior of different wheel profiles, four types of wheel profiles, XP55, S1002, LM, and LMA, wheel-rail slide models were built using finite element method (FEM) software MSC.Marc. Slide temperature and thermal stress were analyzed in thermal-contact coupled and pure mechanical load cases respectively. In the coupled load case, temperature dependent nonlinear material properties, including Young's modulus, heat conductivity, specific heat and thermal expansion coefficient, that would affect the simulation were considered in the FEM models. The results indicate that thermal expansion coefficient and specific heat have the most obvious effect; Young's modulus weaker than the above two, and heat conductivity the weakest.