Influence of non-dry condition creep curves in switch negotiation

In the benchmark on switches and crossings, simulations have been carried out in different switch configurations and operational conditions, with a specified wheel/rail friction coefficient of mu=0.35 considered as dry friction. This means that contamination or third-body layers are not taken into consideration, thus using a theoretical creep curve that is much steeper than the actual curves measured in real railways. In this paper, we perform a comparison between theoretical and measured creep curves and then estimate the impact on simulated creep forces when measured creep curves are used instead of theoretical ones.