Self-steering ability of the proposed new concept of independently rotating wheels using inverse tread conicity

Abstract

This paper proposes the use of independently rotating wheels with inverse tread conicity to get self-steering ability without any complex bogie structure. The effectiveness of the vehicle with two single-axle bogies that use two independently rotating wheel units with inverse tread conicity is proved by the 1/10 scale model experiment. The full vehicle model is made by means of multibody dynamics software SIMPACK^TM. Both the experiment and simulation results show that the proposed inverse tread with independently rotating wheels have good performance. Running stability and curving ability of the proposed inverse tread for independently rotating wheels can be realised by using the semi-active yaw damper.

Keywords:

• independently rotating wheels
• self-steering
• inverse tread conicity
• EEF
• multibody dynamics simulation
• scale model experiment