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The lateral dynamic interaction between trains and tracks on small-radius curves is investigated with theoretical method and field experiment in this article. A vehicle–track spatially coupled model and a simulation software are developed to analyze the dynamic performance of vehicles on elastic tracks. A field experiment is carried out to validate the simulation method. Research results show that severe lateral interaction occurs between wheels and rails when a train passes through a small-radius curved track. Under the strong action of the large lateral wheelset force, the rails roll over, obviously, and the rail gauge is enlarged dynamically. In order to raise the train speed and enhance the running safety, a suit of new measures are put forward to strengthen the old wooden sleeper tracks widely used in the curves of the mountain area in Chinese railways. It is shown that the lateral displacements of rails and the dynamic gauge enlargement are decreased by 67% after the small-radius curved track is strengthened, although the lateral wheel/rail forces on the strengthened track are a little larger than those on the original un-strengthened wooden sleeper track.
Zhai et al. (2006) studied this question.