Paper 8: Some Observations on Linear Theory of Railway Vehicle Instability

Abstract

During ‘bogie hunting’, motion takes place in a limit cycle, so that a description of the motion in terms of linear theory cannot be found. It does not follow, however, that linear theory is valueless. On the contrary, rapid progress is now being made towards an understanding of the phenomenon on the strength of it. An attempt is made in this paper to examine the implications of this fact in very general terms.