Chaos, Hopf bifurcation and nonlinear feedback synchronization control of a nonlinear wheelset motion system

In this paper, we present an improved railway wheelset system by introducing nonlinear terms. Based on theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, the dynamical behaviors of the railway wheelset system are investigated, including dissipativity and invariance, existence of nonzero equilibrium points, the bifurcation characteristics at the equilibrium origin. Furthermore, the chaotic behaviors of the motion of railway wheelset are analyzed. It illustrates that the nonlinear factors greatly affect the complex dynamic characteristics of the improved railway wheelset system and the dynamical behaviors are different for different nonlinear parameters. Our results manifest that multiple equilibria, bifurcations and chaotic characteristics are important factors that cause the instability of the railway wheelset motion. Finally, chaos synchronization of the wheelset motion system is studied. The numerical simulations, including phase diagrams, Lyapunov exponents and bifurcations, are carried out in order to analyze and verify the complex phenomena of the motion of railway wheelset. The research findings provide useful insights for the stability design and operational optimization of railway wheelset systems.