A practical approach for generating wheel-rail roughness spectrum thresholds incorporating metro equipment vibration fatigue failure

Abstract

Vibration fatigue failures of metro equipment caused by wheel-rail roughness have become increasingly prevalent during routine operation, posing serious safety risks. Therefore, establishing a wheel-rail roughness threshold for predictive maintenance is crucial for ensuring the service safety of onboard equipment. To this end, this paper proposes a practical approach for generating a wheel-rail roughness spectrum threshold that explicitly incorporates the vibration fatigue damage characteristics of the equipment. An efficient frequency-domain dynamics model of the vehicle-track-equipment coupled system is first developed and validated for the purpose of equipment vibration fatigue analysis. This model is then applied to develop a practical iterative approach for generating the wheel-rail roughness spectrum threshold, which is demonstrated through a representative case study of a metro vehicle. The research findings demonstrate that the proposed track-vehicle-equipment coupled dynamics model effectively calculates the frequency response function of wheel-rail roughness to equipment stress, enabling a spectral fatigue damage assessment that reveals over 65 % of the damage occurs within critical modal frequency bands. The further generated wheel-rail roughness spectrum threshold spans a wavelength range of 0.02 – 2.5 m, with amplitudes exceeding those of common standard spectra. Measured data from Chinese metro vehicles frequently surpass this threshold at wavelengths around 0.03 m and 0.1 – 0.2 m, underscoring the need for high frequency roughness control. The proposed approach provides a scientific threshold for wheel-rail roughness spectrum to enhance the service reliability via predictive maintenance.

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