Review of Joost Kalker’s Wheel-Rail Contact Theories and Their Implementation in Multibody Codes
During the past decades Kalker developed a number of wheel-rail contact theories that can be used to determine the tangential forces and spin moment between the wheel and the rail [Kalker, 1990]. These theories are: Linear Theory, Strip Theory, Empirical Theory, Simplified Theory and Exact Three Dimensional Rolling Contact Theory. These theories assume that the contact between the two bodies is non-conformal. Recently, Li and Kalker [Li and Kalker 1998a, 1998b and Li, 2002] introduced an approach for numerical solution of the conformal contact between the wheel and the rail. In this paper, Kalker’s wheel-rail contact theories are presented. The paper provides an overview for each theory and its restriction or error as was reported by Kalker. In addition, a systematic procedure for implementing Kalkers’s wheel-rail contact theories in multibody codes is briefly presented.