Research on the mechanism of wheelset flutter in rail vehicles

Abstract

To optimize the vibration phenomenon of rail vehicles, this paper refers to the “flutter theory” used in dynamic research of aircraft, bridges, and other fields to analyze vibration. This article first conducted eigenvalue correlation research on a two-degree-freedom system, studied the conditions for flutter occurrence through eigenvalue analysis and time-domain analysis, and combined two cases to illustrate the situation of flutter in actual physical systems. Afterward, this article calculated the influence of damping on flutter, and innovatively analyzed the wheel-rail contact system using flutter theory, calculated the impact of factors like suspension stiffness, equivalent conicity, and wheel-rail creep coefficient on flutter, and combined dynamic equations to analyze how the operating speed of the system affects the damping term, thereby affecting the flutter situation. The results indicated that there is a possibility of flutter in the lateral dynamics model of wheel-rail contact. If the lateral stiffness of the primary suspension, equivalent conicity, creep coefficient of the system, and track gauge are too high, it will cause flutter. In the defined system, when the lateral stiffness exceeds 1.65 * 10⁶ N · m^-1, or the equivalent conicity exceeds 0.375, or the creep coefficient exceeds 1.04 * 10⁷, or the half of the rolling circle span exceeds 0.57 m, the system will experience flutter, while the longitudinal stiffness below 2.25 * 10⁷ N · m^-1 will also cause flutter and an increase in the operating speed of the system will have a negative impact on flutter suppression. Under the set parameter conditions, when the operating speed is greater than 483.9 km·h^-1, the damping term will be insufficient to suppress flutter, and flutter will reappear in the system. Therefore, when designing a rail transit system, it is necessary to pay attention to the eigenvalues and avoid eigenvalue degeneracy and flutter phenomena by adjusting parameters.

Keywords

flutter eigenvalue analysis railway vehicle non-conservative system wheel-rail system

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