Implications of Lateral Coupler Forces for Rail Vehicle Curving Resistance

Curving resistance is an important topic that requires a lot more research. This paper studied the implications of lateral coupler forces for curving resistance. More than 1800 simulations were conducted using a three-piece bogie wagon model developed in the simpack software package. The results show that lateral coupler forces have significant implications for curving resistance and that empty wagons are more sensitive to lateral forces than loaded wagons. With 20 kN lateral forces, curving resistance can be increased by 52% and 225% for loaded and empty wagons, respectively. The implications are significantly greater when the lateral forces are acting on the front and rear ends of a carbody have opposite directions. The differences caused by lateral forces that have opposite directions are more than two times greater than those caused by lateral forces that have the same direction. The results also show that, when front and rear lateral forces have the same direction, forces pushing toward the high rail are generally helpful in reducing curving resistance. However, curving resistance can be increased when these push forces are too high, or track curves already have high cant deficiency. When two lateral forces have opposite directions, curving resistance can be decreased when front lateral forces are pull forces toward low rail.