Vehicle/track system dynamics
Railway Dynamics and Wheel-Rail Contact. Guiding Principles, Running Behaviour and Damage Patterns

What is the rail vehicle dynamics mission and field of tasks  ? In extreme synthesis we can say that railway dynamics is the discipline that studies & optimizes the vehicle design via simulations and assesses via physical tests the dynamic behaviour of the train. This mission is accomplished based on the analysis of physical quantities such as displacements, velocities, accelerations and forces on the components of the track-vehicle system, including the forces exchanged on the wheel-rail contact patch. Figure  1 gives (i) an overview of the vehicle/track dynamics system, (ii) reports the key input data and the model to be considered for a reliable analysis of the dynamic behaviour and (iii) highlight the main tasks...