Comparison of Wheel-Rail Contact Modelling in Multibody System Online Simulation

The wheel-rail contact modelling is always an interesting topic in rail vehicle system dynamics simulation. Many contact models have been developed for different purposes, and each model has its own pros and cons for different applications. In multibody system (MBS) simulation of rail vehicles, the efficiency and accuracy of the wheel-rail contact model are of importance. It is the aim of this paper to compare in MBS online simulation one classical approach (Hertz theory+FASTSIM), one approximated non-Hertzian approach and the ‘exact’ solver CONTACT and show the influences of the contact modelling on the results of vehicle dynamics simulations