RTRI REPORT April 2000

A Study on Transition Curve Length for Running Safety Considering Vehicle Running Characteristics

Mikihito KOBAYASHI, Hiroaki ISHIDA, Hideyuki TAKAI
Atsushi FURUKAWA, Takeshi KATO, Mitsugi SUZUKI


  On transition curves, wheel loads decrease because four wheels of a bogie are supported unequally on twisted tracks, also because there occur transitional vehicle responses, it is necessary to determine the transition curve length to ensure running safety. At present, the transition curve length is mainly determined from the viewpoint of riding comfort. In this paper, however, we studied the necessary length to satisfy the conditions for running safety. We first studied the vehicle running characteristics from vehicle running simulation for different transition curve lengths. Next we examined a method to estimate the vertical and lateral force when the vehicle is running on transition curves from actual data. After that, we examined the transition curve length to ensure running safety according to the derailment coefficient and wheel load decrease ratio obtained by the estimation method.



Copyright (c) 2000 Railway Technical Research Institute