LATERAL STABILITY OF SIX-AXLE LOCOMOTIVE ON TANGENT TRACK

Abstract

Lateral stability of railway vehicle is one of the most important and fundamental problems from the view points of riding comfort and running safety. Therefore, many theoretical and experimental studies on this problem are being carried out for a long time in various countries. There are two basic problem areas that limit vehicle performance on tangent track: (1) Instability caused by external input form track irregularities and (2) Self excited instabilities inherent in the vehicle's design. The present work is aimed to analyze the lateral stability of the six-axle locomotive on tangent track caused by the self excited instabilities inherent in the vehicle's design through a 21 degrees of freedom model. Software has been developed to evaluate the vehicle lateral instability and critical speed and effect of design changes on critical speed have been discussed