Elastic-Plastic Analysis of Contact Problems of Wheel/Rail with Surface Micro-Roughness

The contact element method and original stress method were used to analyze the elastic- plastic contact problem of wheel/rail with measured surface micro-roughness. The distribution of surface contact pressure on the rail was obtained. The results show that the peak value of contact pressure on the contact area for the surface with micro-roughness was much larger than that for smooth surfaces, and the rough surface went into plasticity. It is therefore necessary to conduct elastic-plastic analysis for wheel/rail contact problems when micro-roughness is considered.