• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.95-101
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• 2017

In this study, we derived theoretical equations for the zigzag movement of a leading vehicle, which is the most frequent behavior in train accidents, by using a simplified spring-mass model for the rolling stock. In order to solve the equations of motion, we applied the Runge-Kutta method, which is the typical numerical analysis method used for differential equations. Furthermore, the lateral displacement of the wheel-set at the wheel-rail interface was estimated using kinetic energy. In order to verify the derived equations, we compared the theoretical and simulated results under various collision conditions. The maximum relative deviations of the lateral displacements were 0.8 [%] ~ 4.7 [%] in light collisions and 0.6 [%] ~ 5.1 [%] under derailment conditions. When an accident is simulated, these theoretical equations can be used to predict the overall behavior and obtain the offset of the body-to-body link as the initial perturbation.