Improvement of Self-Steering Ability of Single-Axle Bogie for Rail Vehicle Considering Equivalent Stiffness

Compatibility between high speed running stability and good curving performance of railway vehicles has long been considered. In the design of vehicle parameters, the axle supporting rigidities are crucial to solve the problem. In order to realize higher level of compatibility, the authors propose the single-axle self-steering bogie based on the analysis of equivalent stiffness for the vehicle model. The proposed secondary longitudinal suspension mechanism replacing spring to damper enables wheelsets to realize ideal curving performance on tight curved track while achieving high speed running stability. In order to verify the performance of the newly developed steering truck, experimental platform with the 1/10 scale model vehicle is originally made. In this paper, the idea of steering bogie is explained while considering the actual bogie mechanism consists of a single-axle bogie, bolster and yaw dampers. Experimental results using the scale model vehicle with two single-axle bogies show excellent performance in which creep forces are dramatically reduced.