Abstract
This paper presents the curving performance of rail vehicles with air suspensions. Air suspensions sometimes cause reduction of wheel load at transition curve, so it is very important to evaluate the performance on transition curve. In previous study it was found that the air suspensions have non-linear characteristics at low speed and that the performance is influenced by the initial condition, the entrance transition curve condition and so on by computer simulation. In this study, the effect of track and running condition on curving performance were examined by the experiments using the one-car-modeled test bench. It was found that the results almost agree with the simulation, and that the performance was influenced by the air flow through the levering valve into or out the air suspensions. So it is effective to improve the characteristics of air suspensions to raise the safety of running.
