The Ingenious Reason for the Design of Train Wheels

None, “How come train wheels don’t derail easily?” Have you thought? what we are used to nlike normal wheels If they were designed, there would be many more accidents and they would become vehicles we would never want to ride.

However, the ingenious design got its share from the magic physics dust on the train wheels. ensuring safety and facilitating movement plays a big role.

We can understand the working logic of train wheels by reenacting the event with cardboard cups.

If we start from the pinpoint example on the YouTube channel “Lesics”, we can explain the incident with cardboard cups. two paper cups with his mouth stuck together think. In this way, our train would not derail even if the rails changed direction.

But the glasses We joined the back parts together When we consider the version, it is much more likely that the train will derail. Even if the shapes seem a little clear to you, you may not fully understand how this is possible.

Conical train wheels save lives.

Train wheels are not perfectly cylindrical. They are actually somewhat conical in shape. The reason for this conical shape is that it serves a major function: arrange the route of the train towards the center of the track and helping it make differential movement.

We can explain the first function as follows: when the wheel of the train bends slightly, the forces acting on it change to create a net force towards the center. “Self-centering” This force, as we call it, allows the wheels to automatically return to the center of the rail. Thus, the train’s stability is maintained and it does not derail.

Of course, there are cases where trains derail, but these are generally; damage to rails, weather conditions or speed and infrastructure It occurs for reasons such as.

We can understand it better with the following animations:

The red arrows are the main forces acting on the wheels. The green reaction forces are always perpendicular to the wheel surface. When the conical wheels are centered, the horizontal parts of these forces are cancel each other out.

Now let’s imagine that the wheels are moving to the right. As you can see above, the entire wheel bends with normal forces. The net force is towards the left. This net force moves the wheels automatically brings it back. When the wheels approach the center, the self-centering force disappears.

It also facilitates differential movement.

The function of the differential in the simplest way We can define it as “ensuring the balance of speed between the two wheels”. This is where the conical shape comes into play and allows different movements when the train turns.

Radius at the point of contact of the train wheels, Thanks to the conical shape It changes to provide the wheels with a slight slip and the centripetal force required for turns. For all these reasons, we would not be wrong if we said that the train wheels are an engineering marvel.

There are also trains that use rubber tires instead of this system.

Rubber wheels are higher than traditional steel wheels rolling resistance owner. However, increasing rolling resistance is not preferred everywhere because it has some advantages and disadvantages.

Yes, rubber tires have more power to climb or descend steep slopes. It also ensures that rail wear is greatly reduced. However, compared to the wheels we just mentioned, there is a possibility of tires bursting. consumes higher energy and as they break down over time, they emit particles that cause air pollution. Therefore, which wheel to use depends on the needs and conditions.

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