Scientific paper ID 1359 : 2016/3

The relationship between wheel and rail is fundamental to explain the dynamic running behavior of a railway vehicle. Among the parameters by which the dynamic behavior of a rail vehicle is characterized, the conicity plays an essential role which influences the vehicle dynamic performance directly. The equivalent conicity allows the satisfactory appreciation of the wheel-rail contact on tangent track and on very large-radius curves. In order to sustain a good running behavior of the vehicle on the track, to prevent wheel, rail and track damage and it the worst case the risk of a derailment the equivalent conicity must remain within given limits. Several different methods for calculation of the equivalent conicity exist and some of them are considered in this paper.