Effect of the rail support stiffness on the occurrence propensity of rail corrugation based on the self-excited vibration of a wheel-rail system

Abstract

From the viewpoint of friction-induced vibration, a self-excited vibrationof a railway wheel-rail system is found to easily occur when the creep forcebetween the wheel and rail is saturated. This self-excited vibration is probablyresponsible for rail corrugation. In this paper, a self-excited vibration model isestablished, which consists of a wheel, a rail and a series of sleepers. The model isused to study the effect of the rail support stiffness on the occurrence propensity ofrail corrugation. Results show that the occurrence propensity of rail corrugationdecreases with increasing rail support stiffness.