【正文】 of structure elastic deformations of bodies in rolling contact on rolling contact performance is briefly analyzed, and Kalker’s theoretical model of threedimensional elastic bodies in rolling contact with nonHertzian form is employed to analyze the creep forces between wheelset and track. In the numerical analysis the selected wheelset and rail are, respectively, a freightcar wheelset of conical profile, China “TB”, and steel rail of 60 kg/m. Finite element method is used to determine the SED of them. According to the relations of the SED and the corresponding loads obtained with FEM, the influence coefficients expressing elastic displacements of the wheelset and rail produced by unit density traction acting on the contact area of wheel/rail are determined. The influence coefficients are used to replace some of the influence coeffi cients calculated with the formula of Bossinesq and Cerruti in Kalker’s theory. The effect of the bending deformation of wheelset shown in Fig. 1a and the crossed influences among the structure elastic deformations of wheelset and rail are neglected in the study. The numerical results obtained show marked differences between the creep forces of wheelset/rail under two kinds of the conditions that effects of the SED are taken into consideration and neglected. 2. Mechanism of reduced contact stiffness increasing the stick/slip ratio of contact areaIn order to make better understanding of effects of the SED of wheelset/track on rolling contact of wheel/rail it is necessary that we briefly explain the mechanism of reduced contact stiffness increasing the ratio of stick/slip area in a contact area under the condition of unsaturated creepforce. Generally the total slip between a pair of contact particles in a contact area contains the rigid slip, the local elastic deformation in a contact area and the SED. Fig. 3a describes the status of a pair of the contact particles, A1 and A2, of rolling contact bodies and without elastic deformation. The lines, A1A_1 and A2A_2 in Fig. 3a, are marked in order to make a good understanding of the description. After the deformations of the bodies take place, the positions and deformations of lines, A1A_1 and A2A_2, are shown in Fig. 3b. The displacement difference, w1, between the two dash lines in Fig. 3b is caused by the rigid motions of the bodies and (rolling or shift). The local elastic deformations of points, A1 and A2, are indicated by u11 and u21, which are determined with some of the present theories of rolling contact based on the assumption of elastichalf space, they make the difference of elastic displacement between point A1 and point A2, u1 = u11 ? u21. If the effects of structure elasticdeformations of bodies and are neglected the total slip between points, A1 and A2, can read as: S1 = w1 ? u1 = w1 ? (u11 ? u21) (1) The structure elastic deformations of bodies and are mainly caused by traction, p and p_ acting on the contact patch and the other boundary conditions of bodies and , they make lines, A1A_1 and A2A_2 generate rigid motions independent of the local coordinates (ox1x3, see Fig. 3a) in the contact area. The u10 and u20 are used to express the displacements of point A1 and point A2, respectively, due to the structure elastic deformations. At any loading step they can be treated as constants with respect to the local coordinates for prescribed boundary conditions and geometry of bodies and . The displacement difference between point A1 and point A2, due to u10 and u20, should be u0 = u10 ? u20. So under the condition of considering the structural elastic deformations of bodies and , the total slip between points, A1 and A2, can be written as: S?1 = w1 ? u1 ? u0 (2) It is obvious that S1 and S?1 are different. The traction (or creepforce) between a pair of contact particles depends on S1 (or S?1 ) greatly. When |S1| 0 (or |S?1 | 0) the pair of contact particles is in slip and the traction gets into saturation. In the situation, according to Coulomb’s friction law the tractions of the above two conditions are same if the same frictional coefficients and the normal pressures are assumed. So the contribution of the traction to u1 is also same under the two conditions. If |S1| = |S?1 | 0, |w1| in (2) has to be larger than that in (1). Namely the pairs of contact particles without the effect of u0 get into the slip situation faster than that with the effect of u0. Correspondingly the whole contact area without the effect of u0 gets into the slip situation fast than that with the effect of u0. Therefore, the ratios of stick/slip areas and the total traction on contact areas for two kinds of the conditions discussed above are different, they are simply described with Fig. 4a and b. Fig. 4a shows the situation of stick/slip areas. Sign in Fig. 4a indicates the case without considering the effect of u0 and indicates that with the effect of u0. Fig. 4b expresses a relationship law between the total tangent traction F1 of a contact area and the creepage w1 of the bodies. Signs and in Fig. 4b have the same meaning as those in Fig. 4a. From Fig. 4b it is known that the tangent traction F1 reaches its maximum F1max at w1 = w_1 without considering the effect of u0 and F1 reaches its maximum F1max at w1 = w_1 with considering the effect of u0, and w_1 w__ 1 . u0 depends mainly on the SED of the bodies and the traction on the contact area. The large SED causes large u0 and the small contact stiffness between the two bodies in rolling contact. That is why the reduced contact stiffness increases the ratio of stick/slip area of a contact area and decreases the total tangent traction under the condition of the contact area without fullslip. 3. Calculation of structure deformation of wheelset/railIn order to calculate the SED described in Fig. 1b–d, and Fig. 2, discretization of the wheelset and the rail is made. Their schemes of FEM mesh are shown in Figs. 5, 7 and 9. It is assumed that the materials of the wheelset an