Dynamic identification of a 1:5 scaled railway bogie on roller rig

A Scaled Roller Rig is an experimental device to carry out laboratory tests on railway vehicles. The advantages of this method consist of low costs, low testing time and good repeatability. Different testing conditions, such as different friction, wear of profiles and axle load can be easily reproduced. Due to this reason many authors use roller rig to study railway dynamic, wear, noise and other railway problems. This work describes the experimental tests carried out to analyze the dynamical behaviour of a 1:5 scale railway bogie on a roller rig in tangent track conditions. The Roller Rig has been designed and realized at Politecnico di Torino and the first tests have been conducted on a single suspended wheelset. Tests performed on a single wheelset are used to validate the wheel/rail and wheel/roller contact algorithm and to adjust the parameters of numerical models. On the other hand the study of a complete railway bogie allows one to simulate the behaviour of a real vehicle and can be used in the design phase of new vehicles. For instance, it is possible to evaluate the effect of changes brought to the suspension system on the running dynamics of the vehicle.