Nonlinear Analysis of Rail Vehicle Forced Lateral Response and Stability

The method of statistical linearization is presented as a design tool for rail vehicles that is capable of including fundamental nonlinearities such as wheel profile geometry and suspension nonlinearities. The method is capable of predicting the response of the vehicle to statistical track irregularities as well as the onset of hunting. The fundamentals of the method, an efficient frequency domain numerical algorithm for stationary response, and a design example are presented. The design example illustrates the influence of wheel profile, gage, track roughness, and suspension variations on vehicle response and stability.