A substitute model of two-dimensional dry friction exposed to dither generated by rolling contact of wheel and rail

Dither generated by rolling contact of wheel and rail smoothes dry friction damping provided by the primary suspension dampers of freight wagons and it should be taken into account in numerical simulations. But numerically the problem is non-smooth and this leads to long execution time during simulation, especially when the vehicle with friction dampers is modelled in the environment of an multi-body system simulation program, whose solver has to cope with many strong non-linearities. The other difficulty is the necessity of handling within the code a number of big volume files of recorded dither sampled with high frequency. To avoid these difficulties, a substitute model of two-dimensional dry friction exposed to dither is proposed that does not need application of dither during simulation, but it behaves as if dither were applied. Due to this property of the model, the excitation of the vehicle model by track irregularities may be supplied as low-frequency input, which allows fast execution and, the necessity of handling high-volume files of recorded dither is avoided. The substitute model is numerically effective. To identify parameters of the substitute model, a pre-processing employing a sample of the realistic dither is carried-out on a simple two-degrees-of-freedom system. The substitute model is anisotropic, describing anisotropic properties of the two-dimensional friction arising in the presence of one-dimensional dither. The model may be applied in other branches of engineering, for example, in mechatronics and robotics, where application of dither may improve the accuracy of positioning devices.     

Influence of the track quality and of the properties of the wheel–rail rolling contact on vehicle dynamics

This work describes an analytical approach to determine what degree of accuracy is required in the definition of the rail vehicle models used for dynamic simulations. This way it would be possible to know in advance how the results of simulations may be altered due to the existence of errors in the creation of rolling stock models, whilst also identifying their critical parameters. This would make it possible to maximise the time available to enhance dynamic analysis and focus efforts on factors that are strictly necessary. In particular, the parameters related both to the track quality and to the rolling contact were considered in this study. With this aim, a sensitivity analysis was performed to assess their influence on the vehicle dynamic behaviour. To do this, 72 dynamic simulations were performed modifying, one at a time, the track quality, the wheel–rail friction coefficient and the equivalent conicity of both new and worn wheels. Three values were assigned to each parameter, and two wear states were considered for each type of wheel, one for new wheels and another one for reprofiled wheels. After processing the results of these simulations, it was concluded that all the parameters considered show very high influence, though the friction coefficient shows the highest influence. Therefore, it is recommended to undertake any future simulation job with measured track geometry and track irregularities, measured wheel profiles and normative values of the wheel–rail friction coefficient.     

Investigating the influence of rail grinding on stability,vibration, and ride comfort of high-speed EMUs using multi-body dynamics modelling

ABSTRACT

High-speed electric multiple units (EMUs) have been popularised rapidly all around the world and have become a major transportation method. Increases in running velocity and wheel-rail deterioration lead to excessive vibration and reduced ride comfort, which are common issues encountered in the operation of high-speed EMUs. While built-in sensors on a car body are able to detect abnormal vibrations in the car body itself, they cannot effectively reflect the ride comfort of passengers. Wheel-rail profile matching can improve the wheel-rail interaction, and rail grinding has thus been introduced as a practical solution to alleviating the aforementioned problems. Nonetheless, the working mechanism of rail grinding has not been investigated theoretically. This study develops flexible car body and human body models based on the rigid-flexible coupled method to systematically study the effects of wheel-rail wear and rail grinding on passenger ride comfort. Case studies show that the proposed models can predict the ride comfort of passengers accurately. It is also demonstrated that rail grinding can significantly alleviate excessive vibration and improve passenger ride comfort in the long term. A long-term investigation reveals that rail grinding can improve the smoothness of the rail surface and reduce the damage to the rail.     

Assessment of the influence of the elastic properties of rail vehicle suspensions on safety,ride quality and track fatigue

A sensitivity analysis has been performed to assess the influence of the elastic properties of railway vehicle suspensions on the vehicle dynamic behaviour. To do this, 144 dynamic simulations were performed modifying, one at a time, the stiffness and damping coefficients, of the primary and secondary suspensions. Three values were assigned to each parameter, corresponding to the percentiles 10, 50 and 90 of a data set stored in a database of railway vehicles. After processing the results of these simulations, the analysed parameters were sorted by increasing influence. It was also found which of these parameters could be estimated with a lesser degree of accuracy in future simulations without appreciably affecting the simulation results. In general terms, it was concluded that the highest influences were found for the longitudinal stiffness and the lateral stiffness of the primary suspension, and the lowest influences for the vertical stiffness and the vertical damping of the primary suspension, with the parameters of the secondary suspension showing intermediate influences between them.