Extended study of railway vehicle lateral stability in a curved track

Abstract

This article presents results of the studies aimed at more accurate stability analysis of railway vehicles in a curved track. More accurate analysis means extended study of the stability as compared with the method used by the authors so far. New measures undertaken by the authors in order to achieve the goal are explained. Besides, differences between results obtained with the earlier and extended approaches are presented and discussed. Results that are expected on the basis of the theory are confronted with practical capabilities to generate them through simulations at the same time. The issues of interest are precise determination of nonlinear critical velocity, determination of linear system critical velocity, determination of unstable periodic and unstable stationary solutions, existence of multiple solutions and correct determination of velocity at which unbounded growth of the solutions (lateral dynamics coordinates) happens during calculations resulting in their stop.

Keywords:

• railway vehicle dynamics
• nonlinear stability
• curved track
• numerical simulation

Acknowledgements

Scientific work financed as research project no. N N509 403136 in the years 2009–2011 from funds for science of Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Warsaw, Poland.