Wayside wheelset lateral motion detection and vehicle hunting instability evaluation

Abstract

Wheel profile wear, or bogie suspension failure will result in hunting instability of the vehicle system which will lead to dramatic changes in the lateral motion of the wheelset. The occurrence of hunting instability will worsen the ride performance of the vehicle or even cause the danger of wheelset derailment. Thus, the in-time and effective detection of wheelset lateral motion is very important for the evaluation of vehicle hunting stability. By installing a certain amount of displacement sensors on the rail side along the track and detecting the distance between the wheel and rail when the wheel passing by, the lateral displacements of the wheelset in measuring points can be obtained. The detection method of wheelset lateral motion by the wayside is studied, which includes the measuring principle, structure design, sensor installation, data acquisition and data analysis, and the application of the method to on-site detection for typical instability cases are demonstrated. At the same time, innovate on the existing on-board hunting instability monitoring method, proposed an evaluation method of hunting instability for wayside lateral movement monitoring system. The results show that: installing 20 eddy current sensors on both sides of the straight track to measure the lateral displacement of the wheelset can meet the requirement of detecting the vehicle hunting instability. The wheelset lateral displacement can be used to monitor the occurrence of vehicle hunting instability if periodic motion is detected. The amplitude of the motion can determine the hunting instability level, and the frequency can be used to describe the wheel wear level and calculate the wheel/rail contact equivalent conicity. This method is able to provide a reliable data support for the vehicle operation safety. The proposed monitoring method and monitoring index are also of reference value to the development of other wayside hunting instability monitoring systems.