Research on wear and grinding treatment of high-speed turnout rails

Abstract To mitigate steel rail wear in turnouts, this study examines wear mechanisms and influencing factors in high-speed turnouts. We establish a coupled dynamics model to analyze vehicle-turnout interactions, incorporating actual turnout rail profiles, continuous traction forces from passing vehicles, and running resistance. This study evaluates the suitability of various wear models, update procedures, wear superposition methods, and filtering techniques for predicting turnout rail wear. A predictive model for turnout rail wear is developed, and the influence of different turnout parameters on rail wear is investigated. Computational results indicate that the wear power model provides superior accuracy and efficiency in predicting turnout rail wear. A depth update step of 0.05mm proves optimal for turnout steel rail wear, while an adaptive filtering algorithm tailored to turnout wear characteristics effectively filters rail wear. Compared to traditional models, our dynamic model, which accounts for traction-resistance, closely aligns with actual measured data, demonstrating higher computational accuracy. Excessive longitudinal and lateral stiffness during vehicle passage through turnouts is found to be detrimental to reducing turnout steel rail wear. Conversely, appropriately increasing anti-snaking damper stiffness and lateral damper damping can mitigate rail wear. Based on the distribution of rail wear in the turnout area, an holistic grinding scheme was formulated. This scheme effectively improved the wheel-rail contact conditions in the turnout area, reducing the lateral vibration acceleration of vehicles passing through the turnout by 52.56% and the vertical vibration acceleration by 30.43%. The holistic grinding scheme can effectively improve the smoothness of the turnout and reduce vehicle vibrations when passing through. This research provides a theoretical basis for suppressing rail wear in high-speed turnouts, effectively reducing the maintenance costs of turnout rails, and has significant implications for improving the operational safety and economic benefits of high-speed trains.