Summary
Nonlinear dynamics of impact oscillators have been widely studied for the design and control of practical systems with amplitude constraining stop. In this study, we theoretically and experimentally investigated the hunting motion in a single railway wheelset with impact to rails.The system above a critical running speed is self-excited due to special contact force, which is called the creep force, between the rail and wheel and can be regarded as a flutter-type self-excited oscillator with double-side impact, because the growth of amplitude is constrained by the impact between rails and wheels. Numerical study of a mathematical model and experimental results using a simple apparatus demonstrate asymmetric oscillation that collides with one of the left or right rails in a single oscillation cycle.
