The article presents the methodologies based on multi-body systems used to analyze the dynamics of rail vehicle in motion in a straight line. Study of the railway vehicles dynamics requires the creation of three mutually independent models: the model of the vehicle, the track model and a model of the wheel – rail contact. A railway vehicle model developed in the multi-body systems convention w ...

The environmental effects of ground-borne vibrations generated due to localised railway defects is a growing concern in urban areas. Frequency domain modelling approaches are well suited for predicting vibration levels on standard railway lines due to track periodicity. However, when considering individual, non-periodic, localised defects (e.g. a rail joint), frequency domain modelling becomes ...

Thorough understanding of steel rail response to wheel load is a key step towards design and evaluation of the railway track structure. In current practice, maximum vertical deflection and bending moment are calculated using the theory of infinite beam on continuous elastic foundation (Winkler model), in which the foundation stiffness is assumed as constant. However, variation of track modulus ...

This paper presents a study of state estimation for active steering of profiled wheels. Fundamental characteristics of a solid-axle wheelset are explained and the potential benefits of active steering are discussed. The paper studies the non-linearity of the wheelset caused by profiled wheel-rail contact surfaces and develops a recursive non-linear Kalman filter to provide reliable and accurate...

Provision of reliable rolling stock and infrastructure equipment is an important part in achieving high levels of safety. Therefore, the railway industry uses different methods and tools to improve the performance of different subsystems in order to ensure safety and reliability, which are the important factors for passengers and cargo transportation. Hence, reliability analysis is required to ...

in this paper the effects of non-linearity of suspension on dynamic behavior of a railway wheelset has been studied. this wheelset has four degrees of freedom that with two constraints it has reduced to two degrees of freedom. vermeulen-johnson theory has been used to calculate contact forces between wheel and rail. in this study the creep coefficients have considered constant. any linearizatio...

The susceptibility of railway wheels to wear and rolling contact fatigue damage is influenced by the properties of the wheel material. These are influenced by the steel composition, wheel manufacturing process, and thermal and mechanical loading during operation. The in-service properties therefore vary with depth below the surface and with position across the wheel tread. This paper discusses ...