On the evaluation of wheel sets and railway track quality

Abstract

The cost of maintenance and the safety of railway operation depend (among other things) on the quality of the wheel sets interaction with the rails. There is the necessity to monitor the rolling behaviour of regular vehicles. Of most importance is the time behaviour of the travelling contact forces between the wheel sets and the trucks. The rolling wheel set obtains a very different position relative to the track, which creates restraints in the wheel set and the track panel structure, and which will discharge continuously by friction induced vibration. Those vibrations cause corrugation, ballast deterioration, wear, squealing noise and other environmental impacts.