The effect of spring pads in the secondary suspension of railway vehicles on bogie yaw resistance

Abstract

This paper deals with properties of bogie yaw resistance of an electric locomotive with secondary suspension consisting of flexi-coil springs supplemented with tilting spring pads. Transversal stiffness of a sample of a spring/pad assembly was measured on a dynamic test stand of the University of Pardubice (Czech Republic) and the results were applied into a multi-body model of the locomotive created in the simulation tool ‘SJKV’. On the basis of the simulation results, a detailed analysis of the bogie yaw resistance was performed in order to explain the effect in dynamic behaviour of the locomotive when the moment against bogie rotation (and therefore the distribution of guiding forces on individual wheels, as well) is influenced with the vehicle speed in a certain curve. Results of this analysis show that the application of suspension elements with strongly directionally dependent transversal stiffness into the secondary suspension can just lead to a dependency of the bogie yaw resistance on cant deficiency, i.e. on the vehicle speed in curve. This fact has wide consequences on the vehicle dynamics (especially on the guiding behaviour of the vehicle in curves) and it also points out that the current method of evaluation of the bogie yaw resistance according to relevant standards, which is related with assessment of the quasistatic safety of a railway vehicle against derailment, is not objective enough.

Keywords:

• flexi-coil spring
• tilting spring pad
• bogie yaw resistance
• X-factor
• multi-body simulations

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Pardubice and by the project No. TH01010529 ‘Advanced methods of stationary tests of railway rolling stock’ of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic.