Title: Geometry of wheel-rail contact: extended envelope method

Authors: M. Decuyper

Addresses: Aspirant au Fonds National de 1a Recherche Scientifique, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Abstract: This paper proposes a general method for determining the wheel-rail contact point based on the principles of M. Bouteloup|s |envelope method|. The method enables the contact points of a wheelset on a track to be determined, without any restriction to close-to-nominal state. Consequently it also allows to detect and to localize a double wheel rail contact, located on the flange and on the tread. Numerical results of this method are given and commented, in a case of general wheel and rail profiles.

Keywords: wheel-rail contact; flange contact; railway vehicles; vehicle dynamics; rail vehicle kinematics; envelope method; double contact.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.1983.061297

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 1983 Vol.4 No.1, pp.36 - 52

Published online: 25 May 2014 *

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