Correction method for measurement data of wheel-rail lateral force based on estimation of lower limit of load center position

Abstract

Instrumented wheelsets are widely used in the railway industry for the purpose of measurement of the wheel-rail interaction forces, which are crucial factors in a running safety assessment. The lateral force, which is the lateral component of the wheel-rail interaction forces, is measured using bending strains induced in the wheel web in the popular configuraions of instrumented wheelset. In this principle of lateral force measurement, the measurement accuracy descreases when the load center position is shifted laterally since the wheel load, which is the vertical component of the interaction forces, also induce the bending strains. In this research, an estimation method for the lower limit of the load center position using a simple calculation to eliminate a part of the measurement error associated with the wheel load.