Third body flow during wheel-rail interaction

In a mechanism, when a contact occurs between two contactors, third body [

1

] is the generic name used to describe the material generated as a result of the contact interaction. Thus the wear phenomenom can be considered as the third body flow Qw definitely ejected from the contact area. Because the wear phenomenom involves as well the global scale (wheel and rail) as the local one (contact interface), the study of this phenomenom via numerical tools needs both continuum and discrete approaches [

2

], [

3

]. We propose here a two-dimensional analysis of the third body flow induced by the relative transverse

sliding motion between wheel and rail [

2

](Vp represents the micro transerve periodic velocity and F the normal load). Both Finite Element and Discrete Element Methods [

4

] are used. At the continuum level we take into account an elastoplastic behaviour for the two bodies. At the local level we use the

Non Smooth Contact Dynamic

method developped by Moreau and Jean [

5

], using non-smooth contact laws to describe body interactions. We use a non-smooth cohesive law to describe the behaviour of the third body.