An investigation of the influence of wheel/rail contact conditions on curve squeal

In this paper the influence of wheel/rail contact conditions on the possible occurrence of curve squeal is investigated. A reference case is presented, together with the available experimental data, and the results of numerical simulations are illustrated. The analyses reported in the paper are based on two calculation steps. First 3D multibody simulation of a rail vehicle running in curve is carried out. Then squeal simulation is performed, which is based on linear wheel and rail dynamic models, coupled through a nonlinear contact model. Stability analysis of the open loop transfer function of the overall system yields the possible unstable frequencies.