Railway Truck Response to Random Rail Irregularities

Abstract

This paper discusses the random response of a seven degree of freedom, passenger truck model to lateral rail irregularities. Power spectral densities and root mean square levels of component displacements and contact forces are reported. The truck model used in the study allows lateral and yaw degrees of freedom for each wheelset, and lateral, yaw and roll freedoms for the truck frame. Linear creep relations are utilized for the rail-wheel contact forces. The lateral rail irregularities enter the analysis through the creep expressions. The results described in the paper were obtained using frequency domain techniques to solve the equations of motion. The reported results demonstrate that the guidance force needed when traveling over irregular rail at high speed utilizes a significant portion of the total available tangential force between wheel and rail.