The relationship betweenwheel/rail(W /R) corrugation and thewavelength of longitudinal
self-vibration and the longitudinal axis of contactellipsewas analyzed based on the nonlinear vibration
and Hertzian theories. The analysis shows that the mechanism of W /R corrugation is that the
wavelength of longitudinal self-vibration is larger than the longitudinal axis ofcontactellipse; for a real
W /R system, the criterion is that the lateral displacement of the wheelset is larger than a critical
value. Numerical simulation and testwere conducted to verify the proposedmechanism and criterion.
The simulation results show thatcorrugationswith lengthsbetween 16 to20mm appearwhen the lateral
displacementof thewheelset is 8 mm. Corrugation testwas conducted on a rolling vibration test rig.
Corrugations form when the lateraldisplacements of thewheelsetare 8 and 11mm, and the lengths are
about20 mm and 18 to 27 mm, respectively, under the former and the latter conditions. There is no
obvious corrugationwhen the lateral displacement is 6 mm.