Dynamics of a Railway Vehicle with Independently Rotating Wheel Trucks.

Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI) developed a bogie which has independently rotating wheels and is half as light as the conventional one, intended for the improvement of the stability of high-speed running on tangent sections and curving performance, and to render it available as a next-generation bogie on JR narrow lines. The performance of the bogie was tested on roller rigs and in field tests. From measurements, it has been verified that independently rotating wheels using a newly developed wheel profile have a gravitational restoring force and their performance met our expectations. From eigenvalues and results of simulation, the influence of the modeling level and that of the steering mechanism, on the running stability of the independently rotating wheels are clarified.