Modeling an accurate and effective heat source is a challenge when describing the thermal behavior of wheel/rail contact, conventionally modeled using Goldak’s heat source. This Gaussian distributed model transplanted directly from the welding field is quite different from the ellipsoidal heat source on the contact patch. An innovative heat source model which reflects the shape and size of contact patch was created based on the energy equivalence in this study. The thermal behavior of the wheel/rail contact was described by using this heat source moving along the rail. Numerical simulations based on a three-dimensional (3-D) finite element (FE) model validate that the proposed heat source model is valid as the relative errors of the peak temperature between the proposed and previously published heat source model are less than 4.45%. The distribution of the contact temperature on the rail surface reflects the shape and size of the contact patch. The semi-ellipsoidal distributed temperature obtained by the proposed elliptic cylinder model is more precise than the Gaussian distributed temperature obtained by the conventionally used Goldak’s model. The proposed elliptic cylinder model has the advantages of simple structure and flexible model variables than the ready-made Goldak’s model in commercial software.

在描述轮轨接触的热行为时，对准确有效的热源进行建模是一项挑战，通常使用 Goldak 的热源进行建模。这种直接从焊接现场移植的高斯分布模型与接触面上的椭球热源有很大的不同。在本研究中，基于能量等效性创建了一种反映接触面形状和大小的创新热源模型。通过使用沿轨道移动的热源来描述轮轨接触的热行为。基于三维 (3-D) 有限元 (FE) 模型的数值模拟验证了所提出的热源模型是有效的，因为所提出的热源模型与之前发布的热源模型之间峰值温度的相对误差小于 4.45% . 钢轨表面接触温度的分布反映了接触面的形状和大小。所提出的椭圆柱面模型获得的半椭球分布温度比传统使用的 Goldak 模型获得的高斯分布温度更精确。与商业软件中现成的Goldak模型相比，所提出的椭圆圆柱模型具有结构简单、模型变量灵活等优点。