Dynamic Simulations of Railway Vehicles Running on Tracks with Lateral and Roll Vibrations

This study investigates the effects of track rolling vibrations on the running safety of railway vehicles. During earthquakes, viaducts are subject to rolling vibrations in addition to lateral and vertical directions, causing tracks on viaducts also to vibrate in the rolling direction. A vehicle dynamics simulator (VDS) was modified to enable simulation of rolling vibrations on a track. Sinusoidal oscillation analysis showed that running safety decreased as the ratio of the roll amplitude to the lateral amplitude of the track increased. In addition, it was verified that the decrease in running safety due to the rolling vibration of the track on rigid-frame viaducts was smaller than for pier type viaducts. This is because rolling vibrations on rigid-frame viaducts are smaller than on pier type viaducts.