ELASTIC WAVES IN ROTATING RAILWAY WHEEL

Abstract

The study is devoted to the analysis of the influence of angular velocity of the railway wheel on the velocity of the elastic wave propagation. The wheel is modelled as an elastic curved Thimoshenko beam lying on continuous, inertial elastic foundation, which creates a wheel plate. Radial and circumferential vibrations are also taken into account (two-dimensional model). The mathematical description of the model consists of the system of two partial, conjugated, differential equations. The solution of the system of equations is determined by the Fourier method. The solutions in wave form are obtained taking advantage of the dependencies resulting from the characteristic determinant. Each monochromatic wave has four angular phase velocities. Two of them have a sense consistent with a vector of angular velocity of a rotating wheel, while the two other ones have opposite sense.