The dynamics of a railway freight wagon wheelset with dry friction damping in the suspension

A simplified model of a single-axle bogie that supports one end of a freight wagon is investigated. The suspension elements consist of linear springs and dry friction dampers, and various spring configurations are considered. The wagon runs on a straight track with constant speed V. The speed is the control parameter in the problem, and for the different spring configurations the resulting dynamics is calculated numerically. The dynamics is rather violent for speeds above 15 m/s. Although the suspension is only a crude model of a UIC standard leaf spring suspension, certain dynamical features compare well with the dynamics of the UIC suspension. For the covering abstract see ITRD E122482.