Effect of the Longitudinal Contact Location on Vehicle Dynamics Simulation

This paper investigates the effect of the calculation of the longitudinal location of a wheel rail contact point on the wheelset’s motion in a vehicle dynamic simulation. All current vehicle dynamic software programs assume that the contact between wheel and rail takes place in the vertical plane through the wheelset’s rolling axis. However,...

Fast estimation of the derailment risk of a braking train in curves and turnouts

When a train runs through a turnout or a sharp curve, high lateral forces occur between the wheels and rails. These lateral forces increase when the couplers between the wagons are loaded in compression, i.e., a rear locomotive pushing a train or a front locomotive braking a train. This study quantifies these effects for a train that begins...

Effects of wheelset flexibility on the simulation of vehicle-track interaction at crossings

Though numerical models based on multi-body dynamics (MBD) are often used to simulate the vehicle-track interaction at crossing impact, their relative capabilities and accuracy were not discussed. This paper aims to investigate the influence of wheelset flexibility on the result of crossing impact simulation in the frequency range 0–500 Hz. Two...