Minimização do desgaste nas curvas com rampas retas em ferrovias.

Abstract

Railway’s lay-outs are, in general, formed by straight lines, matched by circular curves, and transition segments consisting of varying curvature curves. The goal of these transition segments is to avoid bumps that; otherwise, would occur between the wheel’s brim and the inner face of the rail’s head, as trains pass from the straight to the circular section. When a body moves along a curved path, it is subjected to a centrifugal acceleration, which depends on the body’s velocity. This acceleration can be counterbalanced by a lateral slant of the path which, in railways, is obtained by rising the outer rail. Since, in practice, several kinds of trains use the same railway, the lifting of the rail which is adequate for one kind may not be for others, and therefore, the wearingdown of the rail is not avoided. The purpose of this paper is to show that wear-down of the outer rail of curves with straight ramps can be minimized using Operation Research techniques. The wear-down problem is equated from physical laws, and the wear-down is minimized using Fibonacci´s method, programmed in a PC.