Development of a vehicle–track interaction model to predict the vibratory benefits of rail grinding in the time domain

Imperfections in the wheel–rail contact are one of the main sources of generation of railway vibrations. Consequently, it is essential to take expensive corrective maintenance measures, the results of which may be unknown. In order to assess the effectiveness of these measures, this paper develops a vehicle–track interaction model in the time domain of a curved track with presence of rail corrugation on the inner rail. To characterize the behavior of the track, a numerical finite element model is developed using ANSYS software, while the behavior of the vehicle is characterized by a unidirectional model of two masses developed with VAMPIRE PRO software. The overloads obtained with the dynamic model are applied to the numerical model and then, the vibrational response of the track is obtained. Results are validated with real data and used to assess the effectiveness of rail grinding in the reduction of wheel–rail forces and the vibration generation phenomenon.