Influence of Axle Load, Track Gage, and Wheel Profile on Rail-Vehicle Hunting

Analyses have been conducted on the influence of axle load, track gage, and wheel contour on the hunting behavior of simplified models of wheelsets for typical freight- and passenger-car suspensions. The capability of the wheel flange to limit hunting oscillations is found to increase with wheel axle load. The use of worn wheel contours or excessively tight gage is found to increase the susceptibility of the wheelset to excessive and unstable hunting oscillations. For freight-car applications, coulomb friction in the suspension (e.g., constant-contact side bearings) may act to increase the range of speeds over which hunting will not occur and may permit operation at higher speeds for extremely straight track. However, if track irregularities are sufficient to cause a breakout of the friction, drastic hunting oscillations leading to derailment can occur. Regions of stable limit-cycle hunting and unstable operating conditions are defined. Computational algorithms and computer programs for predicting the boundaries of stable, unstable, and limit-cycle behavior for the wheelset and more complex rail-car analytic models, using the describing-function type of analysis, are presented and reviewed.