The effect of non-uniform train speed distribution on rail corrugation growth in cornering

Rail corrugation is a significant problem in railway engineering, manifesting as an oscillatory wear pattern on the rail head. These profile variations induce unwanted vibrations, excessive noise and other associated problems. Uniformity in train passing speed has been shown to accelerate corrugation growth while widening the probabilistic speed distribution can be shown to mitigate the phenomena. This paper extends this research by investigating the effect of asymmetry in speed distribution on corrugation growth on curved track/corners. To this end, an efficient corrugation growth prediction model is further developed to include quasistatic bogie cornering dynamics and investigated under non-uniform speed distribution conditions. The results indicate that under typical cornering conditions, the rate of corrugation growth is increased (or decreased) when the mean or skewness of the distributed set of passing speeds is biased to higher (or lower) speeds. In particular, for the site conditions investigated, controlling skewness could achieve a further 12% in corrugation growth rate reduction from a nominal 41% reduction due to symmetric speed variation.