Frequency Analysis of the Railway Track under Loads Caused by the Hunting Phenomenon

Hunting is a potentially dangerous phenomenon related to the lateral oscillation of the wheels that impacts the rails and causes the wear of the infrastructure's components. Therefore, the analysis and timely detection of hunting can lead to the application of corrective maintenance tasks, reducing damages, and costs and even derailments as a result. In this work, the vibration response of a finite element model of a rail with hunting-induced loads by a single wheel is analyzed in three directions: longitudinal, lateral, and vertical. The contact patch forces are calculated by means of Simpack((R)) using the Kalker linear theory and the contact Hertz theory. The system is solved by using the Newmark-beta approach. The results of the deflection and vibration analysis, following the proposed methodology, show how the different characteristics of the loads impact the rail.