Scale Models to Verify the Effectiveness of the Methods to Reducing the Vertical Bending Vibration of the Railway Vehicles Carbody: Applications and Design Elements

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present applications and design elements of scale models of the carbody of railway vehicles integrated in experimental laboratory systems to verify the effectiveness of the methods to reduce vertical bending vibration of the carbody. In the first part of the paper, some applications of such experimental systems are presented, which include different scale models of the railway vehicle carbody. In the second part of the paper, the structure and dimensioning elements of a new demonstrative experimental system, specially designed by the authors of the present paper for testing the functionality of an original method of reducing the vertical bending vibrations of the carbody of railway vehicles, are presented. This method is based on an innovative approach that involves the use of a passive system consisting of two bars rigidly mounted on the longitudinal beams of the carbody underframe, having the role of opposing the bending of the carbody. The main element of the demonstrative experimental system is the scale model of the vehicle carbody, reduced to a beam, on which the two bars, called anti-bending bars, are mounted. For the dimensioning of the experimental model of the carbody and the anti-bending bars, original methodologies are developed in which several conditions are involved. In the case of the dimensioning of the experimental model of the carbody, the conditions refer to the convenient adoption of the scaling factor of the dimensions of the real carbody from the perspective of the practical realization of the experimental model of the carbody, ensuring the buckling stability of the demonstrative experimental system, achieving natural frequency of the vertical bending of the real carbody and avoiding the interference of the bounce vibration with the vertical bending vibration of the demonstrative experimental model of the carbody. The dimensions of the anti-bending bars are established from the condition that the vertical bending frequency of the experimental model of the carbody is outside the range of sensitivity of the human body to vertical vibration. Additionally, the natural frequency of the vertical bending vibration of the anti-bending bars must be chosen to avoid interference with the vertical bending vibration of the experimental model of the carbody. The effectiveness of the anti-bending bars in reducing the vertical bending vibration of the experimental model of the carbody is investigated with the help of numerical simulation results developed based on an original theoretical model of the experimental model of the carbody with anti-bending bars.

Testing the Effectiveness of the Anti-Bending Bar System to Reduce the Vertical Bending Vibrations of the Railway Vehicle Carbody Using an Experimental Scale Demonstrator

“…To demonstrate the feasibility of the new concept of reducing the vibration of the carbody of the railway vehicles using an anti-bending bar system, an original dedicated experimental scale demonstrator system was proposed in ref. [24]. Figure 3 shows the diagram of the experimental scale demonstrator system for the carbody with anti-bending bar system, which consists of the scale model of the vehicle carbody, which is placed on four elastic rubber elements (suspension elements); rubber is a material often used in the suspension of railway vehicles [25,26].…”

“…In paper [24], a discrete-continuous-type model like that used in ref. [17] was presented and utilised to evaluate the influence of the anti-bending bar system on the frequency response function of the reduced scale model of the vehicle carbody.…”

“…Figure3. Sketch of experimental demonstrator system for the carbody with anti-bending bar system (after[24]). …”

The Effect of the Traction Rod on the Vertical Vibration Behavior of the Railway Vehicle Carbody

“…The assessment of the vibration behavior of railway vehicles is a problem that can be approached both theoretically and experimentally [1][2][3]. Research based on theoretical approaches has been developed with the help of the results obtained through numerical simulations [4,5], and experimental approaches use the results of tests carried out in the laboratory on scale experimental models [6][7][8][9][10][11] and on special test vehicles [12,13], or the results of tests carried out on the line [14].…”