Over the years, leaf springs have been applied in freight train wagons' systems. Parabolic leaf springs have offered greater guarantees in terms of safety and drivability than classic leaf springs. These leaf springs have intrinsic characteristics that are more attractive, such as lower friction and higher specific energy storage capacity.In this research, an extensive characterization of UIC parabolic leaf springs is made according to the UIC standard compliance tests. Several types of monitoring devices are used to gather the reaction forces, displacements, relative displacements between leaves in contact, and surface strains.The outcomes permitted to validation of the numerical model and the suggested approaches.
Over the recent years, the Portuguese railway sector has suffered a significant shortage of resources, generating many issues associated with the limited maintenance of the rolling stock that has been revealing strong mechanical wear, affecting their operability. Fatigue problems have often occurred in suspension components from rolling stock, more properly in leaf springs. These occurrences have been generating derailments that in addition to economic losses, threaten human life. The leaves are subject to high and dynamic loads during their operational life and therefore a previous approach using procedures such as rainflow is necessary. Using the rainflow procedure, it was possible to identify the loading levels in terms of displacement and in terms of stress in the leaves. It was found that the distribution of the alternating component tends towards a Gaussian distribution.
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