Simulation of railway vehicle motion on the straight track

The article presents the methodologies based on multi-body systems used to analyze the dynamics of rail vehicle in motion in a straight line. Study of the railway vehicles dynamics requires the creation of three mutually independent models: the model of the vehicle, the track model and a model of the wheel - rail contact. A railway vehicle model developed in the multi-body systems convention was an electric locomotive of the EU07symbol The general software model of the wheel - rail contact was programmed and is presented, which allows one in the course ofanalysis to determine the coordinates ofthe contact point between wheel and rail and thus the designation of the wheel forces in contact with the rail. The model ofthe contact forces includes normal force with damping hysteresis and tangential forces determined by the Polach method. Developed models were implemented in Matlab program environment. The numerical simulations were performer for the complete vehicle and a single bogie steady state conditions.