Improvement of high speed stability and curving performance by parameter control of trucks for rail vehicles considering independently rotating wheelsets and unsymmetric structure.

This paper presents the possibility to improve both the dynamic stability and the ability to steer around curves by truck parameter control for rail vehicles. According to the direction of motion, the structure of the trucks such as the primary stiffness, link mechanism, and the arrangement of independently rotating wheels is changed, which is longitudinally asymmetric. In the case of interwheelset structure, perfect steering is possible but are generally incompatible with that of the high hunting stability. Both the hunting and the curving performance have been improved by the use of the trailing axle equipped with independently rotating wheels. Moreover, there is a possibility to achieve the compatibility between these two requirements.