Rail corrugation, one of the most deleterious types of track wear, affects the railroad industries in many countries. Rail corrugation leads not only to vehicle and track vibration, lifespan reduction of infrastructure, and safety and passenger comfort issues but it also produces track noise. This paper, based on the track vibration theory, studies the initiation and development of rail corrugation in both the time and frequency domains. First, four track models for the frequency-domain analysis are developed to model the common short sleeper track, vibration absorbing fastener track, elastic short sleeper track and ladder sleeper track. The frequency response analysis is performed to calculate the characteristic frequencies of the track models. In order to analyse the relationship between the natural vibration of track structures and rail corrugation, the characteristic frequencies are compared with the measured passing frequencies of tracks due to rail corrugation. Second, the vehicle–track–tunnel three-dimensional dynamic models are developed for the four track structures to study the initiation of rail corrugation under the influence of track vibration using the time-domain analysis. Finally, the development of rail corrugation for the four track structures is investigated by means of the wear growth rate. Moreover, the influence of other factors, such as the curve radius, the rail–sleeper relative position, the driving velocity and the wheel–rail friction coefficient, is discussed.

This article used a combined solution of ABAQUS and FE-SAFE to evaluate the performance and predict the fatigue life of the e-clip (a widely used e-clip in the railway system) under cyclic loading. With the proposed methods, the fatigue life analysis of the e-clip has been performed under 12 working conditions. The results show that the inside of the rear arch has the shortest fatigue life and it is therefore the most critical part, which is proved by the field observation. Another conclusion is that the insertion depth of the rear arch into the cast shoulder (short of the insertion depth) and the clip deflection are two of the most important parameters to the fatigue life. The mismatch of the two parameters may cause e-clip fractures. Finally, after optimization of the fatigue life analysis and energy analysis for the e-clip, it is suggested for the installation of e-clips that the clip deflection should be within 10–12 mm and the gap from rear arch to cast shoulder should be within 3–9 mm.