RESEARCH ARTICLE

Modelling of dynamic contact length in rail grinding process

  • Shaodan ZHI 1 ,
  • Jianyong LI , 1 ,
  • A. M. ZAREMBSKI 2
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  • 1. School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control, Beijing Jiaotong Unversity, Beijing 100044, China
  • 2. Railroad Engineering Program, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark 19711, USA

Received date: 15 Apr 2014

Accepted date: 27 Jun 2014

Published date: 10 Oct 2014

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

Rails endure frequent dynamic loads from the passing trains for supporting trains and guiding wheels. The accumulated stress concentrations will cause the plastic deformation of rail towards generating corrugations, contact fatigue cracks and also other defects, resulting in more dangerous status even the derailment risks. So the rail grinding technology has been invented with rotating grinding stones pressed on the rail with defects removal. Such rail grinding works are directed by experiences rather than scientifically guidance, lacking of flexible and scientific operating methods. With grinding control unit holding the grinding stones, the rail grinding process has the characteristics not only the surface grinding but also the running railway vehicles. First of all, it’s important to analyze the contact length between the grinding stone and the rail, because the contact length is a critical parameter to measure the grinding capabilities of stones. Moreover, it’s needed to build up models of railway vehicle unit bonded with the grinding stone to represent the rail grinding car. Therefore the theoretical model for contact length is developed based on the geometrical analysis. And the calculating models are improved considering the grinding car’s dynamic behaviors during the grinding process. Eventually, results are obtained based on the models by taking both the operation parameters and the structure parameters into the calculation, which are suitable for revealing the process of rail grinding by combining the grinding mechanism and the railway vehicle systems.

Cite this article

Shaodan ZHI , Jianyong LI , A. M. ZAREMBSKI . Modelling of dynamic contact length in rail grinding process[J]. Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering, 2014 , 9(3) : 242 -248 . DOI: 10.1007/s11465-014-0305-y

Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by innovation projects for graduate students in Beijing Jiaotong University under Grant M11JB00350, M13C100010 and M12C100010, the innovation research project of Railway Ministry of PR China under Grant 2010G008-C. In addition, the authors would like to show their gratitude to the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and constructive suggestions with regard to the revision of the paper.
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