Theory and practice for assessing structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains

Purpose–The safety and reliability of high-speed trains rely on the structural integrity of their components and the dynamic performance of the entire vehicle system.This paper aims to define and substantiate the assessment of the structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains in both theory and practice.The key principles and approacheswill be proposed,and their applications to high-speed trains in Chinawill be presented.Design/methodology/approach–First,the structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains are defined,and their relationship is introduced.Then,the principles for assessing the structural integrity of structural and dynamical components are presented and practical examples of gearboxes and dampers are provided.Finally,the principles and approaches for assessing the dynamical integrity of highspeed trains are presented and a novel operational assessment method is further presented.Findings–Vehicle system dynamics is the core of the proposed framework that provides the loads and vibrations on train components and the dynamic performance of the entire vehicle system.For assessing the structural integrity of structural components,an open-loop analysis considering both normal and abnormal vehicle conditions is needed.For assessing the structural integrity of dynamical components,a closed-loop analysis involving the influence of wear and degradation on vehicle system dynamics is needed.The analysis of vehicle system dynamics should follow the principles of complete objects,conditions and indices.Numerical,experimental and operational approaches should be combined to achieve effective assessments.Originality/value–The practical applications demonstrate that assessing the structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains can support better control of critical defects,better lifespan management of train components and better maintenance decision-making for high-speed trains.

Parametric analysis of wheel wear in high-speed vehicles

In order to reduce the wheel profile wear of highspeed trains and extend the service life of wheels, a dynamic model for a high-speed vehicle was set up, in which the wheelset was regarded as flexible body, and the actual measured track irregularities and line conditions were considered. The wear depth of the wheel profile was calculated by the well-known Archard wear law. Through this model, the influence of the wheel profile, primary suspension stiffness, track gage, and rail cant on the wear of wheel profile were studied through multiple iterafive calculations. Numerical simulation results show that the type XP55 wheel profile has the smallest cumulative wear depth, and the type LM wheel profile has the largest wear depth. To reduce the wear of the wheel profile, the equivalent conicity of the wheel should not be too large or too small. On the other hand, a small primary vertical stiffness, a track gage around 1,435-1,438 mm, and a rail cant around 1：35-1：40 are beneficial for dynamic performance improvement and wheel wear alleviation.

Hierarchical model updating for high-speed maglev vehicle/guideway coupled system based on multiobjective optimization

The high-speed maglev vehicle/guideway coupled model is an essential simulation tool for investigating vehicle dynamics and mitigating coupled vibration.To improve its accuracy efficiently,this study investigated a hierarchical model updating method integrated with field measurements.First,a high-speed maglev vehicle/guideway coupled model,taking into account the real effect of guideway material properties and elastic restraint of bearings,was developed by integrating the finite element method,multi-body dynamics,and electromagnetic levitation control.Subsequently,simultaneous in-site measurements of the vehicle/guideway were conducted on a high-speed maglev test line to analyze the system response and structural modal parameters.During the hierarchical updating,an Elman neural network with the optimal Latin hypercube sampling method was used to substitute the FE guideway model,thus improving the computational efficiency.The multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm with the gray relational projection method was applied to hierarchically update the parameters of the guideway layer and magnetic force layer based on the measured modal parameters and the electromagnet vibration,respectively.Finally,the updated coupled model was compared with the field measurements,and the results demonstrated the model’s accuracy in simulating the actual dynamic response,validating the effectiveness of the updating method.

Influence of Vehicle Parameters on Critical Hunting Speed Based on Ruzicka Model

While introducing foreign advanced technology and cooperating with Chinese famous research institutes,the high-speed vehicles are designed and take the major task of passenger transport in China.In high-speed vehicle,the characteristic of shock absorber is an important parameter which determines overall behavior of the vehicle.The most existing researches neglect the influence of the series stiffness of the shock absorber on the vehicle dynamic behavior and have one-sided views on the equivalent conicity of wheel tread.In this paper,a high speed passenger vehicle in China is modeled to investigate the effect of the parameters taking series hydraulic shock absorber stiffness into consideration on Ruzicka model.Using the vehicle dynamic model,the effect of main suspension parameters on critical speed is studied.In order to verify the reasonableness of shock absorber parameter settings,vibration isolation characteristics are calculated and the relationship between suspension parameters and the vehicle critical hunting speed is studied.To study the influence of equivalent conicity on vehicle dynamic behavior,a series of wheel treads with different conicities are set and the vehicle critical hunting speeds with different wheel treads are calculated.The discipline between the equivalent conicity of wheel tread and critical speed are obtained in vehicle nonlinear system.The research results show that the critical speed of vehicle much depends on wheelset positioning stiffness and anti-hunting motion damper,and the series stiffness produces notable effect on the vehicle dynamic behavior.The critical speed has a peak value with the equivalent conicity increasing,which is different from the traditional opinion in which the critical speed will decrease with the conicity increasing.The relationship between critical speed and conicity of wheel tread is effected by the suspension parameters of the vehicle.The study results obtained offer a method and useful data to designing the parameters of the high speed vehicle and simulation study.

Progress in high-speed train technology around the world

This is a review of high-speed train development in the sense of technology advances all over the world. Three generations of high-speed trains are classified according to their technical characteristics and maximum operating speed. Emphasis is given to the newly developed high-speed train in China, CRH380. The theoretical foundations and future development of CRH380 are briefly discussed.

Damage Tolerance Assessment of a Brake Unit Bracket for High-Speed Railway Welded Bogie Frames

The brake unit bracket of a bogie frame is an important load-carrying component, particularly under emergency start/stop conditions. Conventional infinite/safe life approaches provide an over-conservative recommendation for the allowable strength and lifetime, which hinders the lightweight design of modern railway vehicles. In this study, to ensure the reliability and durability of a brake unit bracket, an attempt was made to integrate the nominal stress method and an advanced damage tolerance method. First, a complex bogie frame was modelled using solid elements instead of plate and beam elements. A hot spot stress region on the bracket was found under an eight-stage load spectrum obtained from the Wuhan–Guangzhou high-speed railway line. Based on the probability of foreign damage, a semi-elliptical surface crack was then assumed for residual life assessment. The results obtained by the cumulative damage and damage tolerance methods show that the brake unit bracket can operate for over 30 years. Moreover, even if a 2-mm depth crack exists, the brake unit bracket can be safely operated for more than 2.27 years, with the hope that the crack can be detected in subsequent maintenance procedures. Finally, an appropriate safety margin was suggested which provides a basis for the life prediction and durability assessment of brake unit brackets of high-speed railways.

Development of new electromagnetic suspension-based high-speed Maglev vehicles in China:Historical and recent progress in the field of dynamical simulation

High-speed Maglev is a cutting-edge technology brought back into the focus of research by plans of the Chinese government for the development of a new 600 km/h Maglev train.A Chinese‐German cooperation with industrial and academic partners has been established to pursue this ambitious goal and bring together experts from multiple disciplines.This contribution presents the joint work and achievements of CRRC Qingdao Sifang,thyssenkrupp Transrapid,CDFEB,and the ITM of the University of Stuttgart,regarding research and development in the field of high‐speed Maglev systems.Furthermore,an overview is given of the historical development of the Transrapid in Germany,the associated development of dynamical simulation models,and recent developments regarding high-speed Maglev trains in China.

Gas-surface interaction features under effects of gas-gas molecules interaction in high-speed flows

Understanding interactions between gas molecules and solid surface is key to the aerodynamic design of high-speed,high-altitude aerospace vehicles,but there is a large dispersion of gas-surface interaction parameters or namely accommodation coefficients.The uncertainty results partly from different considerations of the interaction between gas molecules in various experimental and numerical methods.In this study,effects of gas-gas molecules interaction are systematically discussed by comparing two different approaches of molecular dynamics simulation of high-speed argon molecules scattering on a graphite surface.The popularly-used“single scattering”approach repeats the scattering process of a single gas molecule without considering the gas-gas molecules interaction.The newly-developed“continual scattering”approach continually shoots gas molecules at the surface,considering collisions between gas molecules in addition to gas molecules’collisions with surface.Gas-surface interaction features in the two approaches are compared and discussed under various affecting factors including rarefaction degree,gas-surface interaction strength,surface temperature and incident velocity.It is shown that these two approaches usually produce different accommodation coefficients,and the corresponding mechanisms are explained.This study could help clarify some doubts about the selection of accommodation coefficients in engineering practice,and also provide an instruction on design of an appropriate molecular dynamics simulation approach.

高速铁路列车系统中的动力学问题

本文系统地讨论了高速铁路列车系统中存在的动力学问题，包括结构动力学、车辆动力学、空气动力学和一些耦合动力问题。重点对高速铁路列车系统中的一些特有动力现象和解决方法进行了分析与介绍，并指出了高速铁路列车系统中各个研究领域的现状和发展方向。

Shipborne Underwater Acoustic Communication System and Sea Trials with Submersible Shenhai Yongshi

The Shipborne acoustic communication system of the submersible Shenhai Yongshi works in vertical, horizontal and slant channels according to the relative positions. For ease of use, an array combined by a vertical-cone directional transducer and a horizontal-toroid one is installed on the mothership. Improved techniques are proposed to combat adverse channel conditions, such as frequency selectivity, non-stationary ship noise, and Doppler effects of the platform’s nonlinear movement. For coherent modulation, a turbo-coded single-carrier scheme is used. In the receiver, the sparse decision-directed Normalized Least-Mean-Square soft equalizer automatically adjusts the tap pattern and weights according to the multipath structure, the two receivers’ asymmetry, the signal’s frequency selectivity and the noise’s spectrum fluctuation. The use of turbo code in turbo equalization significantly suppresses the error floor and decreases the equalizer’s iteration times, which is verified by both the extrinsic information transfer charts and bit-error-rate performance. For noncoherent modulation, a concatenated error correction scheme of nonbinary convolutional code and Hadamard code is adopted to utilize full frequency diversity. Robust and lowcomplexity synchronization techniques in the time and Doppler domains are proposed. Sea trials with the submersible to a maximum depth of over 4500 m show that the shipborne communication system performs robustly during the adverse conditions. From the ten-thousand communication records in the 28 dives in 2017, the failure rate of the coherent frames and that of the noncoherent packets are both below 10%, where both synchronization errors and decoding errors are taken into account.

Computational Simulation of Turbulent Flow Around Tractor-Trailers

A method to evaluate the properties of turbulent flow in proximity to the vehicle and close to the ground surface has been elaborated.Numerical simulations have been performed on the basis of the Unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations(URANS)written with respect to an arbitrary curvilinear coordinate system.These equations have been solved using the Spalart-Allmaras differential one-parametric turbulence model.The method of artificial compressibility has been used to improve the coupling of pressure and velocity in the framework of a finite volume approach.Time-averaged distributions of pressure fields,velocity components,streamlines in the entire area and near the tractor-trailer,as well as integral and distributed characteristic parameters(such as coefficients of pressure,friction and drag force)are presented.According to our results,the turbulent flow accelerates in the area of the tractor cabin and in the gap between surfaces.Above the driver’s cabin,a pressure drop occurs due to a sharp acceleration of flow in this area.Downstream,pressure is restored and becomes almost constant in proximity to the edge of the trailer.The dimensions of the separation area exceed the length of the transport system several times.Though agreement with experimental results is relatively limited due to the two-dimensional nature of the numerical simulations,the present approach succeeds in identifying the main physical effects involved in the considered dynamics.It might be used in future studies for initial approximate assessments of the influence of the vehicle shape on its aerodynamic characteristics.

Effect of wheelset flexibility on wheel–rail contact behavior and a specific coupling of wheel–rail contact to flexible wheelset

The fexibility of a train＇s wheelset can have a large effect on vehicle–track dynamic responses in the medium to high frequency range.To investigate the effects of wheelset bending and axial deformation of the wheel web,a specifi coupling of wheel–rail contact with a fexible wheelset is presented and integrated into a conventional vehicle–track dynamic system model.Both conventional and the proposed dynamic system models are used to carry out numerical analyses on the effects of wheelset bending and axial deformation of the wheel web on wheel–rail rolling contact behaviors.Excitations with various irregularities and speeds were considered.The irregularities included measured track irregularity and harmonic irregularities with two different wavelengths.The speeds ranged from 200 to400km/h.The results show that the proposed model can characterize the effects of fexible wheelset deformation on the wheel–rail rolling contact behavior very well.

GGC:Gray-Granger Causality Method for Sensor Correlation Network Structure Mining on High-Speed Train

Vehicle information on high-speed trains can not only determine whether the various parts of the train are working normally,but also predict the train’s future operating status.How to obtain valuable information from massive vehicle data is a difficult point.First,we divide the vehicle data of a high-speed train into 13 subsystem datasets,according to the functions of the collection components.Then,according to the gray theory and the Granger causality test,we propose the Gray-Granger Causality(GGC)model,which can construct a vehicle information network on the basis of the correlation between the collection components.By using the complex network theory to mine vehicle information and its subsystem networks,we find that the vehicle information network and its subsystem networks have the characteristics of a scale-free network.In addition,the vehicle information network is weak against attacks,but the subsystem network is closely connected and strong against attacks.

Application of UAV Image in Quantitative Analysis of Landscape Pattern of Railway

Taking Beijing–Shanghai High-speed Railway(the section of Zhenjiangnan Station) for example,this paper applied UAV remote sensing data and GIS spatial analysis to analyze current land use types in this section,on this basis used landscape pattern indices that showed high correlation with land use changes for the quantitative analysis and evaluation of ecosystem structure in the study area and also landscape pattern after the construction of high-speed railway.The results showed that UAV images performed well in the evaluation of railway landscape ecological environment,landscape structure and features represented by the selected landscape pattern indices in this paper were applicable,and capable of ensuring scientific evaluation of ecological environmental impact;the overall landscape pattern of the Zhenjiangnan Station section(Beijing–Shanghai High-speed Railway) after completion was moderate,and local ecosystem was damaged,thus scientific and reasonable ecological planning was required to design and change landscape structure.

V2X communications with an image sensor

This paper introduces infrastructure-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-vehicle communications using VLC.A VLC coupled with a high-speed image sensor is introduced(i.e.,image sensor communication).The high-speed image sensors provide eyes for autonomous and connected vehicles.VLC imparts data reception capability to image sensors with necessary functions,which can then be provided to autonomous and connected vehicles.In this paper,some of our research on coupling VLC to high-speed image sensors is introduced,including our key findings:the basics of ISC,a vehicle motion model,and range estimation.