In this paper the dynamics of towed elastic wheels are studied with the help of the brush tyre model. To calculate the lateral deformation of the contact patch centre-line distributed time-delay is taken into account for the rolling parts, whereas parabolic limits are used to determine the deformation in case of side-slip. After linear stability analysis of the rectilinear motion the limit cycles of the non-smooth time-delayed system are calculated with the method of numerical collocation. With the help of bifurcation diagrams it is demonstrated how the periodic orbits develop from the linear stability boundary in a structure characteristic of piecewise-smooth systems. Moreover, it is shown that the contact memory effect and the dry friction yield bistable parameter ranges besides the linearly unstable domains. Namely, for one particular towing velocity a stable equilibrium corresponding to straight-line motion and a stable periodic orbit coexist resulting a hysteresis effect in the stability of the straight-line motion.
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