Evaluation of Numerical Simulation Approaches for Simulating Train–Track Interactions and Predicting Rail Damage in Railway Switches and Crossings (S&Cs)

Switch and crossing (S&C) faults are a major cause of track-related delays and account for a significant proportion of maintenance and renewal budgets for railway infrastructure managers around the world. Although various modelling approaches have been proposed in the literature for the simulation of vehicle–track dynamic interaction, wheel–rail contact and damage prediction, there is a lack of evaluation for combining these approaches to effectively predict the failure mechanism. An evaluation of S&C modelling approaches has therefore been performed in this article to justify their selection for the research interests of predicting the most dominant failure mechanisms of wear, rolling contact fatigue (RCF) and plastic deformation in S&C rails by recognising the factors that influence the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed modelling approaches. A detailed discussion of the important modelling aspects has been carried out by considering the effectiveness of each individual approach and the combination of different approaches, along with a suggestion of appropriate modelling approaches for predicting the dominant failure mechanisms.