Wheel – Rail interaction based on roughness calculation

Rolling noise is a relevant source in railway applications. The rolling noise is generated by the contact force the wheel, and the rail, exchange each other during relative motion. The interaction force between wheel and rail is generated by their roughness. Wheel and rail surfaces are not perfectly flat, they have a lot of small micro imperfections due to usage, damages, manufacturing. The whole of these imperfection is the roughness of the two surfaces. In the following a new interaction model will be shown where the roughness in kept in account to simulate the real case application. The model, based on previously studies, is improved introducing the rail and wheel real roughness for interaction force calculation. A real case study will be kept in account for model application and its application.