Learning Forum

[Michael Blas]

Hello,

I want to simulate the stresses generated by the movement of a car over a platform. The velocity of the car is 0.3m/s.

Which would be a good way to modelate the interaccion between the wheel and the rail? I have simplificated the geometry as you can see in the next picture

Actually, Im considerating a no-separation contact between the faces of the wheel and rail touching each other, and a joint to restrict the lateral relative displacement between the inner faces of the rail and wheel.

Also is there any recommendation about the necessary time step to this type of simulation?

Thanks...

[dlooman]

The time step should be small enough to produce a number of solution per travel over the span and to resolve the response frequency of the bridge/car.  The response frequency will change with the position of the car, but the frequency when the car is at mid-span seems to be the most important one.  If that frequency is 1 hz, then a time step of 1/20 secs would be needed to resolve it.