Dynamic simulation of a roller rig

The dynamic behaviour of railway vehicles is greatly influenced by the interaction of the wheelsets on the railway track. This behaviour can be replicated in laboratory conditions using a scaled roller rig. This paper presents the results of the modeling and simulation of a one-fifth scale roller rig. The simulation results obtained have been compared with a real railway vehicle (bogie) on the track. It has been observed that the scale roller rig has a much lower critical velocity than real railway vehicle due to the similarity and dimensional scaling laws that are taken into consideration in the roller rig design. The scale roller rig critical speed was observed to be 10.2 m/s while the Full Scale railway vehicle model was found to be 52 m/s. It can be concluded that the critical speed of the scaled roller rig model is one-fifth of the full scale critical speed.