Abnormal wear characteristics of rack systems with longitudinal pitch deviation in rack railways

Pitch deviation at rack joints (PDRJ) is a common error in rack railways. It directly affects the contact characteristics between the rack and gear and leads to accelerated surface wear. This threatens the stability and service life of the rack system, and the theoretical understanding of this issue remains limited. To address this gap, this study develops an improved tooth wear model that simultaneously accounts for the instantaneous variations in meshing stiffness and dynamic transmission error (DTE) induced by PDRJ, as well as the real-time correlation between gear-rack contact position and meshing excitation. Subsequently, the rack tooth load and wear characteristics are evaluated through the rack vehicle-track coupled dynamics and gear-rack contact model. The model’s reliability is verified through field measurements. Moreover, the influence of varying PDRJ levels on load sharing factors, surface wear depth, and rack displacement is investigated. The results show that PDRJ disrupts the theoretical gear-rack meshing process, resulting in non-uniform load distribution and accelerated wear, particularly in the addendum and dedendum regions of the rack teeth. This study provides valuable insights into the rack surface wear mechanism under PDRJ.