Which Parameters Determine the Type of Bogie Hunting Bifurcation?

An important question of railway vehicle dynamics is to understand which parameters affect the transformation between sub- and supercritical bifurcation in the stability assessment. Recent studies report effects of the equivalent conicity, the wheelset guidance stiffness and other parameters. Performing parameter variations using a typical bogie model with linear suspension components but considering all nonlinearities of wheel/rail contact geometry, this paper shows that the type of bifurcation depends predominantly on the nonlinearity of the wheel/rail contact geometry, while the effects of the equivalent conicity, the creep forces and the wheelset guidance stiffness are less important.