Keywords: metro track, rail corrugation, fastener, dynamic behaviour, field measurement.

This paper gives a brief review of some published papers regarding the analysis of the characteristics and mechanism of rail corrugation, and the measures taken against rail corrugation. Also, it briefly introduces the recent development of the China metro, the fasteners widely used in the China metro lines now, and the rail corrugation phenomena occurring on China's metro lines according to detailed site investigation since 2010. The investigated cities include Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Tianjin, Chengdu, Changsha, Shenzhen, etc. The investigation includes the measurement, analysis, and observation of rail corrugation characteristics, the dynamic behaviour of the metro tracks generating the corrugations, and the analysis of corrugation mechanisms. In the paper, the essential conditions for rail corrugation to form are discussed in detail. According to the detailed site investigation of metro rail corrugation since 2010, the relationships between the corrugation characteristics and the metro track characteristics are analyzed in detail. The corrugation characteristics mainly refer to corrugation wavelength, and the metro track characteristics include the tangent and curved track segments, the curved track super elevation, sleeper pitch, fastener stiffness, and rail welding irregularities. The effect of these characteristic factors on rail corrugation initiation and the corresponding corrugation characteristics are analysed in detail. Finally, the paper presents the measurement and analysis of the effect of the corrugations on the dynamic behaviour and the noise of the vehicle and track, in which a three-dimensional finite element model of the wheel/rail in rolling contact, taking into consideration the sprung mass and the rail infrastructure (discrete sleeper support), is developed to calculate the effect of short pitch corrugation on the wheel/rail normal force.

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