The effect of the installation angle of a high speed train yaw damper on wheel wear

Abstract

The yaw damper is of great significance to the dynamic performance of high-speed trains. In this work, the influence of different installation angles of yaw dampers on dynamic responses and wheel wear is investigated. Firstly, the detailed dynamic model of a high-speed train is developed, which includes all kinds of nonlinear factors, such as wheel/rail contact relationship and nonlinear characteristics of various damping, and the influence of the installation angle of the yaw damper on dynamic performances of railway vehicles is investigated. Then the wheel wear prediction procedure is also proposed to obtain the effect of the installation angle of the yaw dampers on wheel wear evolution. The results show that the nonlinear critical speed of railway vehicles gradually increases with the increasing lateral distance of the yaw damper at the frame side. While critical velocity gradually decreases with increasing vertical installation distance of the yaw damper at the car body side. The maximum wheel wear depth will also gradually increase with increasing vertical distance at the car body side and increasing lateral distance of the yaw damper at the frame side when the vehicle runs on the tangent track. Moreover, it is also noticed that the wear depth of the wheel on both sides will gradually increase with the increasing vertical installation distance of the yaw damper at the car body side when the vehicle runs on a curved track. When the lateral installation angle of the yaw damper is less than 0°, the wheel wear rate remains constant and the wear sensitivity of the wheel to lateral installation angle is low, if the lateral installation angle of the yaw damper is greater than 0°, wheel wear rate increases significantly with increasing lateral installation angle of the yaw damper.