CURVING PERFORMANCE SIMULATION OF BOGIE ANGLE LINKED STEERING TRUCK

Abstract

ABSTRACT A type of bogie angle linked steering truck adopts a method of steering the wheelsets depending on the relative yawing angle between the car body and the truck. This kind of truck has no risk of the reverse steering and is able to decrease the wheel lateral force greatly in the circular curve section. However, compared to the general bolster trucks, the steering truck has problems such as complicated truck maintenance work because of the complicated truck structure equipped with steering devices such as a steering links. Therefore, in order to devise a type of steering truck with a structure as simple as possible, the authors carried out a fundamental study of steering trucks equipped with fewer steering links than the existing one. In this paper, the authors report on the curving performance simulation analysis of a railway vehicle equipped with the steering truck, and also its result that the influence of the position and the number of steering links was confirmed. Regarding the types of the mounting position of the steering links, there are eight types including four links and none. The authors compared the curving performance by the lateral force of a leading axle in the curve section. In the simulation results, the lateral force under four-link condition was the smallest in the circular curve section. However, it increased in the trailing transition curve section. On the other hand, in the case of two links, the lateral force was greatly reduced in the trailing transition curve section.