POSSIBILITIES OF IMPROVING A RAIL VEHICLE RUNNING SAFETY WITH INDEPENDENTLY ROTATING WHEELS

This work is focused on the possible ways of improving the running safety of a railway vehicle, which uses IRWs (independently rotating wheels) in a bogie. It discusses the main positive and negative properties of an application of IRWs for a railway vehicle while it is running in a curve. There are evaluated running properties of a railway vehicle in terms of safety for IRWs and a standard wheelset (SW). It is assumed that a wheelset design with IRWs will reduce the risk of derailment of a railway vehicle in a curve with a smaller radius because it will be reached a more favourable distribution of decisive forces in the wheel/rail contact. A designed wheelset with IRWs differs from other IRWs designs; in this case, only a flange can rotate independently from a wheel treat surface about the axis of rotation. Further, this research presents an analysis of a friction forces distribution of the friction forces in a contact of a flange and a rail head and a comparison with an SW. The obtained results allow concluding that it is advisable to use the wheels with the perspective wheel design (including independently rotating) to reduce the resistance to movement and improve the running properties of a railway vehicle for safety.