For the stability verification of railway wheelsets in Germany, dynamic torsional stresses must be respected as they affect the axle and press fit stability of a wheelset. These dynamic stresses are applied to a wheelset by torsional vibration. However, dynamic stresses cannot be predicted by calculation, and so time-consuming and cost-intensive test runs are performed to measure the maximum dynamic stresses. Therefore, this article deals with the setup of a simulation model that shall enable the simulative prediction of maximum dynamic torsional stresses. This model respects that vibration excitation originates from the wheel-rail contact point and that the vibration energy input comes from a high-frequency drive train control. The first results show successful simulation of vibration excitation and correlations between adhesion change and maximum dynamic stresses.

Torsional vibration is an oscillation phenomenon occurring at driven railway vehicle wheelsets. As the resulting dynamic stresses can be significantly larger than the maximum static motor torque, axle and press fit are at risk of failure. To prevent dangerous vibration events and with these, press fit and axle from failure, traction drive manufactures nowadays used to implement vibration suppression algorithms in drive controls. In this paper, the effectiveness of such suppression algorithms is analyzed. Furthermore, as a pilot survey, we analyze to what extend traction controls influence the excitation of torsional vibration.

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