Dissipation Effect in the Hunting Motion Stability of Wheel Set with Elastic Joints

The axle hunting is a coupled lateral and yaw self oscillatory motion which is largely determined by wheel–rail contact geometry. The stability of this motion is an important dynamic problem that determines the maximum operating speed of railway vehicle. To improve the stability performances, without increasing the rail-wheel interaction forces above safety limits, elastic joints and dissipative devices are used to connect the wheelset to the bogy frame. In this paper is studied the influence of passive linear and non-linear dissipative horizontal forces on the hunting motion stability of a wheelset with elastic joints.