Influence of wheel-rail contact modelling on the initiation and growth of rail rutting corrugation: Contact parameter evolution

README — Supplementary dataset
================================

Dataset accompanying the publication:

  Platzer F., Vollebregt E., Leitner M., Six K.
  "Influence of wheel-rail contact modelling on the initiation and growth of rail rutting corrugation."
  Currently submitted to Vehicle System Dynamics.

Licence:       Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) 
Contact:      Felix Platzer, felix.platzer@tugraz.at

1. Overview
-----------------------------------
This dataset contains the wheel-rail contact parameter distributions underlying the figures in Section 3.2 of the paper. For every combination of wavelength, contact model and chirp amplitude, it provides the contact pressure, slip velocity and local wear distributions at all timesteps during the passing of one full wavelength. The figures in the paper show only selected representative timesteps; this dataset provides the complete set.

For each scenario the data are provided as an animation (MP4) showing the evolution over one wavelength, together with the individual frames the animation is composed of. All distributions are longitudinal cross-sections taken at the lateral position of maximum wear, as described in Section 2.4.3 of the paper.

2. Contents and directory structure
-----------------------------------
The dataset is provided as a single archive, "Appendix A. Supplementary
data.zip". Its contents are organised by the corresponding section of the
paper:

  Appendix A. Supplementary data/
    3.2.1 Contact model comparison - corrugation initiation/
      Contact_parameter_analysis_at_14.5mm.mp4
      Contact_parameter_analysis_at_14.5mm_frames/
        frame_0001.png
        frame_0002.png
        ...
      Contact_parameter_analysis_at_37.5mm.mp4
      Contact_parameter_analysis_at_37.5mm_frames/
        ...
      Contact_parameter_analysis_at_50mm.mp4
      Contact_parameter_analysis_at_50mm_frames/
        ...

    3.2.2 Amplitude variation - long-term corrugation growth behaviour/
      [analogous MP4 + _frames folders per chirp amplitude]

Each ".mp4" file is the animation for one scenario; the corresponding
"..._frames" folder contains the individual frames (frame_XXXX.png) that
make up that animation, in order.

3. Plot contents
-----------------------------------
The animations follow the layout of the corresponding figures in the paper. For "3.2.1 Contact model comparison", each row shows one of the five contact models (as in Figures 8 and 9). For "3.2.2 Amplitude variation", each row shows one of the investigated chirp amplitudes (as in Figure 11). In all cases the columns show contact pressure, slip velocity and local wear, with the final row showing the surface roughness profile.

  - Solid line:    highlighted timestep
  - Grey profiles: all timesteps within the spatial window
  - Shaded area:   difference from the steady-state distribution recorded
                   before the chirp excitation begins
                   (red = above steady state, blue = below)

4. Acknowledgement
-----------------------------------
The dataset was generated in the course of the publication “Influence of wheel-rail contact modelling on the initiation and growth of rail rutting corrugation: Contact parameter evolution”, which was written at Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH in Graz, Austria. The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support within the COMET K2 Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure (BMIMI), Austrian Federal Ministry for Economy, Energy and Tourism (BMWET), the Province of Styria (Dept. 12) and the Styrian Business Promotion Agency (SFG). The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) has been authorised for the programme management. They would furthermore like to express their thanks to their supporting industrial and scientific project partners, namely RAILplus AG, Stadler Bussnang AG, voestalpine Rail Technology GmbH, voestalpine Railway Systems GmbH and Lucchini RS S.p.A., as well as the Swiss Federal Office of Transport (FOT), which provided financial support to RAILplus AG in this project.