Theory of rigid wheel rolling along a deformable rail (Q1280323)

The author studies the problem on rolling without slipping of absolutely rigid wheel on the viscoelastic rail bearing on the viscoelastic foundation. It is assumed that the wheel and the rail have a point contact. Two cases of the wheel rolling motion are discussed: first, with subcritical velocity and second, with the velocity exceeding the critical one. The power of active and dissipative forces are determined for stationary regimes of the motion as well as the efficient force of resistance depending on the model parameters.