Gear transmission has a non-negligible influence on the dynamic responses and wheel wear of high-speed motor cars. This work analyzes the influence of the driving system on dynamic responses and wheel wear of high-speed motor cars during acceleration. Firstly, a fully nonlinear multibody system(MBS) is developed and various nonlinear factors, such as various types of dampers and wheel-rail contact relation, are considered, and the detailed gear transmission is also introduced to obtain the accurate dynamic responses. Secondly, a wheel wear prediction model integrating the Archard wear model and the vehicle dynamics system is established based on wheel tread update strategy of target speed, and wheel wear evolution of high-speed motor car is obtained in one re-profiling cycle, and simulation results are compared with the field measured data respectively to validate vehicle model and wheel wear prediction procedure. Finally, the effects of gearbox suspension rod stiffness and vertical motor suspension joint stiffness on dynamic responses and wheel wear during acceleration process are simulated respectively. The results show that as the gearbox suspension rod stiffness increases, the gearbox suspension force gradually increases, which not only suppresses the nodding motion of the gearbox but also reduces the absolute value of the longitudinal wheel creepage, resulting in the reduction of wear depth. Moreover, the difference between the dynamic response of high-speed motor cars with and without gear transmission is huge, which indicates that gear transmission is not negligible in the process of dynamics simulation and wheel wear prediction.
Sha et al. (2026) studied this question.