The effect of vertical track irregularity on wheelset lifting in rail vehicle collision

Excessive track irregularity will aggravate the wheel-rail impact force of rail vehicles, increase the wheel lift displacement and the risk of vehicle derailment. In this paper, considering the track irregularity, a wheel-rail contact model is established in rail vehicle collision, and the accuracy of the wheel-rail contact model is verified. The process of wheelset lifting and the causes of the difference are analyzed, and the influence of different track irregularity on the displacement of wheelset lifting is studied. The results show that by comparing with the dynamic simulation results, the wheel-rail contact model considering the track irregularity in this paper can better simulate the vertical motion of the wheelset, and the overall error is less than 2 %. Under the influence of vertical track irregularity, the maximum difference of wheel lift displacement on the same wheelset is 134.55 %. With the increase of track irregularity amplitude, the maximum value of wheel lift displacement after collision increases linearly. When the amplitude of track irregularity increases from 0.47 to 4.74 mm, the maximum value of wheelset lift displacement increases by 40%.