Application of Gap Element Method to Wheel/Rail Contact Problem Based on V-5

The vector form intrinsic finite element (V-5) method and the gap element method are combined to solve the static wheel/rail contact in two-dimensions in this paper to obtain the wheel/rail normal contact pressure, which would be compared with the normal contact pressure of ABAQUS and Hertz theory. The results showed that the contact pressure distribution of V-5 was consistent with ABAQUS and Hertzs, and the mechanical behavior of contact area was reasonable under the circumstance of different axle loads. Besides, it also verified the feasibility of adopting gap elements method to solve the static wheel/rail contact on the basis of vector form finite element method, which with the superiority of large rotation and large deformation, and laid the foundation of rolling wheel-rail contact behavior analysis.