An abnormal carbody swaying of intercity EMU train caused by low wheel-rail equivalent conicity and damping force unloading of yaw damper

Low-frequency carbody swaying phenomenon often occurs to railway vehicles due to hunting instability,which seriously deteriorates the ride comfort of passengers.This paper investigates low-frequency carbody swaying through experimental analysis and numerical simulation.In the tests,the carbody acceleration,the wheel-rail profiles,and the dynamic characteristics of dampers were measured to understand the characteristics of the abnormal carbody vibration and to find out its primary contributor.Linear and nonlinear numerical simulations on the mechanism and optimization measures were carried out to solve this carbody swaying issue.The results showed that the carbody swaying is the manifest of carbody hunting instability.The low equivalent conicity and the decrease of dynamic damping of the yaw damper are probably the cause of this phenomenon.The optimization measures to increase the equivalent conicity and dynamic damping of the yaw damper were put forward and verified by on-track tests.The results of this study could enrich the knowledge of carbody hunting and provide a reference for solving abnormal carbody vibrations.

Carbody Structural Lightweighting Based on Implicit Parameterized Model

Most of recent research on carbody lightweighting has focused on substitute material and new processing technologies rather than structures. However, new materials and processing techniques inevitably lead to higher costs. Also, material substitution and processing lightweighting have to be realized through body structural profiles and locations. In the huge conventional workload of lightweight optimization, model modifications involve heavy manual work, and it always leads to a large number of iteration calculations. As a new technique in carbody lightweighting, the implicit parameterization is used to optimize the carbody structure to improve the materials utilization rate in this paper. The implicit parameterized structural modeling enables the use of automatic modification and rapid multidisciplinary design optimization （MDO） in carbody structure, which is impossible in the traditional structure finite element method （FEM） without parameterization. The structural SFE parameterized model is built in accordance with the car structural FE model in concept development stage, and it is validated by some structural performance data. The validated SFE structural parameterized model can be used to generate rapidly and automatically FE model and evaluate different design variables group in the integrated MDO loop. The lightweighting result of body-in-white （BIW） after the optimization rounds reveals that the implicit parameterized model makes automatic MDO feasible and can significantly improve the computational efficiency of carbody structural lightweighting. This paper proposes the integrated method of implicit parameterized model and MDO, which has the obvious practical advantage and industrial significance in the carbody structural lightweighting design.

Effect of Train Carbody's Parameters on Vertical Bending Stiffness Performance

Finite element analysis（FEA） and modal test are main methods to give the first-order vertical bending vibration frequency of train carbody at present, but they are inefficiency and waste plenty of time. Based on Timoshenko beam theory, the bending deformation, moment of inertia and shear deformation are considered. Carbody is divided into some parts with the same length, and it＇s stiffness is calculated with series principle, it＇s cross section area, moment of inertia and shear shape coefficient is equivalent by segment length, and the fimal corrected first-order vertical bending vibration frequency analytical formula is deduced. There are 6 simple carbodies and 1 real carbody as examples to test the formula, all analysis frequencies are very close to their FEA frequencies, and especially for the real carbody, the error between analysis and experiment frequency is 0.75%. Based on the analytic formula, sensitivity analysis of the real carbody＇s design parameters is done, and some main parameters are found. The series principle of carbody stiffness is introduced into Timoshenko beam theory to deduce a formula, which can estimate the first-order vertical bending vibration frequency of carbody quickly without traditional FEA method and provide a reference to design engineers.

Identifying the relationship between suspension parameters of underframe equipment and carbody modal frequency

As a critical component of the railway vehicle, underframe equipment has a great influence on the ride comfort of railway vehicles due to their big mass and active vibration. Therefore, study on the relationship between suspension parameters of underframe equipment and the modal frequency of carbody is extremely crucial for con trolling the ride quality of railway vehicles. In this paper, a finite element model of the carbody was developed to investigate the effects of the suspension location, the mass of the suspension equipment, and the suspension frequency on the mode of the carbody. Then, the matching relationship between the suspension parameters and the modal frequency of the carbody was studied through the transfer function. In addition, roller rig tests were performed to verify the numerical simulation model of the carbody. The results show that the suspension parameters of the underframe equipment have a great influence on the mode of the carbody, especially for the frequency of the first bending mode. To improve the frequency of carbody highfrequency bending and reduce energy transfer, equipment with a large mass should be suspended toward the middle of the carbody. The weight of the equipment strongly affects the first bending frequency and energy transfer of the carbody. The frequency of heavy suspended equipment should be sufficiently low to increase the transmissibility of high frequencies and improve the vibration characteristics of the carbody. Although the bending frequency of the carbody can be improved effec tively by increasing the suspension stiffness of thesuspension equipment, in order to reduce carbody vibration effectively, the suspension frequency of the equipment should be slightly lower than the carbody bending frequency.

Influence of equipment excitation on flexible carbody vibration of EMU

To study the vibration transmission character istics of a flexible carbody and its suspended equipment, a vertical mathematical model of highspeed electric multiple unit was established with equipment excitation considered. And the dynamic unbalance and impact turbulence excita tion from equipment were taken into account in a single stage and twostage vibration isolation system, respectively. Results show that the excitation transferred to carbody increases with suspension stiffness but decreases with the equipment mass increasing; the vibration transmission can be reduced by increasing the equipment mass or reduce the suspension stiffness. To avoid vibration resonance, the dynamic unbalance frequency of equipment should be out of the possible range of the carbody flexible modes, and a small stiffness should be applied to reduce the impact tur bulence. A small stiffness, however, would result in a large movement of the equipment which is limited by the static deflection requirement, while a great stiffness will transfer high frequency vibration. Therefore, a preferred stiffness should make the suspension frequency of equipment a bit greater than the first bending mode of carbody. Additionally, a 3D rigidflexible coupled dynamics model was built to verify the mathematical analysis, and they show good agreements. Results show that a twostage isolation could reduce the excitation transmission and make the vibration of carbody and equipment acceptable.

Optimization and static strength test of carbody of light rail vehicle

Preliminary structure of light rail vehicle (LRV) carbody made of steel was designed considering its usage, strength, manufacturing, etc. Based on the finite element analysis, the optimization of design parameters associated with thickness of LRV carbody is carried out to increase the whole strength of the carbody and to reduce its mass. With the aids of the substructure technique and the modified technique with discrete variables in the optimization based on the finite element method, the consumed computing time is reduced dramatically. The optimized LRV carbody is re-analyzed by FEM to obtain its static strength and vibrating mode and is manufactured. The mass of the optimized carbody reduces about 1.3 kg, and the relative reduction ratio is about 10%. Then, the strength test of the real carbody under the static load is executed. It is shown by the numerical and test results that the design requirements of the LRV carbody are satisfying. The newly designed carbody is used in the LRV, which is the first one used commercially developed by China independently. Nowadays, the LRV is running on the transportation circuit in Changchun of China.