WHEELSET LATERAL DYNAMIC ANALYSIS USING THE DESCRIBING FUNCTION TECHNIQUE.
This paper deals with the analysis and dynamic modeling of railway wheelsets moving on straight regular tracks. The describing function method of analysis is applied to investigate the influence of parametric variations on wheelset critical velocity. In addition, the relationship between the amplitude of sustained lateral oscillations and critical speed is derived. The nonlinearities in the model include the difference in rolling radii as a function of lateral displacement of the wheelset from its mean position, profile conicity, and gravitational stiffness in the lateral and yaw directions. Quantities such as critical speed, frequency of limit cycles, gravitational stiffness, effective conicity, and creepage can be easily computed using the proposed technique.