High-Speed Ground Transport—A Stochastic Model of Track Roughness and Misalignment

Abstract

One of the significant disturbances to a tracked hovercraft or any other high-speed ground transport vehicle is the roughness of the guideway surface together with misalignment of the guideway structure itself. Existing methods of describing this roughness and misalignment are reviewed and their shortcomings noted. A description is proposed which is valid in both statistical and wavelength-amplitude domains. Numerical data from the Tracked Hovercraft Ltd test track at Earith are analysed and a mathematical model proposed for a typical commercial H.S.G.T. guideway. A method of computer generation of typical roughness profiles is discussed.