Typical Wheel-Rail Profile Change and Matching Characteristics of High-Speed Railway in China

In order to systematically grasp the change and matching characteristics of wheel and rail profiles of high-speed railway in China, 172 rail profile measurement points and 384 wheels of 6 high-speed EMUs were selected on 6 typical high-speed railway lines, including Beijing-Shanghai, Wuhan-Guangzhou, Harbin-Dalian, Lanzhou-Xinjiang, Guiyang-Guangzhou and Dandong-Dalian for a 2-year field test. Based on the measured data, the characteristics of rail and wheel wear were analyzed by mathematical statistics method. The equivalent conicity of wheel and rail matching in a wheel reprofiling cycle was analyzed by using the measured rail profile. Results show that when the curve radius of high-speed railway is larger than 2 495 m, the wear rate of straight line and curve rail is almost the same. For the line with annual traffic gross weight less than 11 Mt, the vertical wear of rail is less than 0.01 mm. The wear rate of the rail with the curve radius less than 800 m increases obviously. The wheel tread wear of EMUs on Harbin-Dalian line, Lanzhou-Xinjiang line and Dandong-Dalian line is relatively large, and the average wear rate of tread is about 0.05~ 0.06 mm•(10 000 km)-1, while that of Beijing-Shanghai line, Wuhan-Guangzhou line and Guiyang-Guangzhou line is about 0.03~0.035 mm•(10 000 km)-1. When the wear range of wheel is small, the equivalent conicity increases with the increase of wheel tread wear. When the wear range of wheel is wide, the contact points of wheel and rail are evenly distributed, and the equivalent conicity does not increase obviously with the increase of wheel tread wear. © 2020, Editorial Department of China Railway Science. All right reserved.