Contact mechanics issues of a vehicle equipped with partially independently rotating wheelsets

A recently developed novel wheelset design where individual wheels are mounted on stub axles and are connected through a shaft is described. The design may include torque limiters to partially uncouple the wheels to reduce peak longitudinal forces. The work described in this paper is based on the analysis of the running dynamics of a library vehicle to compare conventional and new wheelset arrangements to highlight the effects of the torque limiter on wear and rolling contact fatigue (RCF) damage. The comparison is performed for a wide variety or running speeds, non-compensated accelerations and adhesion coefficients, revealing that the proper setting of the torque limiters can effectively reduce both high rail RCF damages in mild radius curves and corrugation formation and growth in tight radius curves. Practical applicability of the solution in terms of durability of the components together with the analysis of dissipated energy in the torque limiter are shown.