Parametric investigation of railway fastenings into the formation and mitigation of short pitch corrugation

Short pitch corrugation has been a problem for railways worldwide over one century.In this paper,a parametric investigation of fastenings is conducted to understand the corrugation formation mechanism and gain insights into corrugation mitigation.A three-dimensional finite element vehicle-track dynamic interaction model is employed,which considers the coupling between the structural dynamics and the contact mechanics,while the damage mechanism is assumed to be differential wear.Various fastening models with different configurations,boundary conditions,and parameters of stiffness and damping are built up and analysed.These models may represent different service stages of fastenings in the field.Besides,the effect of train speeds on corrugation features is studied.The results indicate:(1)Fastening parameters and modelling play an important role in corrugation formation.(2)The fastening longitudinal constraint to the rail is the major factor that determines the corrugation formation.The fastening vertical and lateral constraints influence corrugation features in terms of spatial distribution and wavelength components.(3)The strengthening of fastening constraints in the longitudinal dimension helps to mitigate corrugation.Meanwhile,the inner fastening constraint in the lateral direction is necessary for corrugation alleviation.(4)The increase in fastening longitudinal stiffness and damping can reduce the vibration amplitudes of longitudinal compression modes and thus reduce the track corrugation propensity.The simulation in this work can well explain the field corrugation in terms of the occurrence possibility and major wavelength components.It can also explain the field data with respect to the small variation between the corrugation wavelength and train speed,which is caused by frequency selection and jump between rail longitudinal compression modes.

On a general theory for compressing process and aeroacoustics:linear analysis

Of the three mutually coupled fundamental processes （shearing, compressing, and thermal） in a general fluid motion, only the general formulation for the compress- ing process and a subprocess of it, the subject of aeroacous- tics, as well as their physical coupling with shearing and thermal processes, have so far not reached a consensus. This situation has caused difficulties for various in-depth complex multiprocess flow diagnosis, optimal configuration design, and flow/noise control. As the first step toward the desired formulation in fully nonlinear regime, this paper employs the operator factorization method to revisit the analytic linear theories of the fundamental processes and their decomposi- tion, especially the further splitting of compressing process into acoustic and entropy modes, developed in 1940s-1980s. The flow treated here is small disturbances of a compressible, viscous, and heat-conducting polytropic gas in an unbounded domain with arbitrary source of mass, external body force, and heat addition. Previous results are thereby revised and extended to a complete and unified theory. The theory pro- vides a necessary basis and valuable guidance for developing corresponding nonlinear theory by clarifying certain basic issues, such as the proper choice of characteristic variables of compressing process and the feature of their governing equations.

BUCKLING ANALYSIS UNDER COMBINED LOADING OF THIN-WALLED PLATE ASSEMBLIES USING BUBBLE FUNCTIONS

Bubble functions are finite element modes that are zero on the boundary of the element but nonzero at the other point. The present paper adds bubble functions to the ordinary Complex Finite Strip Method(CFSM) to calculate the elastic local buckling stress of plates and plate assemblies. The results indicate that the use of bubble functions greatly improves the convergence of the Finite Strip Method(FSM) in terms of strip subdivision, and leads to much smaller storage required for the structure stiffness and stability matrices. Numerical examples are given, including plates and plate structures subjected to a combination of longitudinal and transverse compression, bending and shear. This study illustrates the power of bubble functions in solving stability problems of plates and plate structures.

Bunch compression study using the envelop emodel in CSRm

The feasibility of attaining a short-pulse-duration heavy ion beam with a nanosecond pulse length is studied in the main ring of the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou （HIRFL）. Such a heavy ion beam can be produced by non-adiabatic compression, and it is implemented by fast rotation in the longitudinal phase space. In this paper, the possible beam parameters during longitudinal bunch compression are studied by using the envelope model. The result shows that a shortest heavy ion bunch 23Su2S＋ of 29 ns with energy of 200 MeV/u can be obtained, which can satisfy high energy density physics research.

A useful guide of effective mesh-size decision in predicting the ultimate strength of flat-and curved plates in compression

The present study aims to determine the appropriate size of mesh or the number of the element(NoE)for flat-and curved plates,which is suggested to assess its safety subjected to axial compression based on the ultimate limit state(ULS)design and analysis concept.The unstiffened panel(=plate)and stiff-ened panel,considered primary members of ships and ship-shaped offshore structures,are subjected to repeated axial compression and tension caused by continued vertical bending moments applied to the hull girder.Plates are attached with stiffeners by welding,and 6,8 or 10 elements are generally rec-ommended to allocate in flat-plate’s breadth direction in between stiffeners for finite-element(FE)mod-elling,which enables the presentation of the shape of initial deflection applied to the plate.In the case of the load-shorting curve for curved plate,it is reported that the nonlinear behaviour characteristics,i.e.,snap-through,snap-back,secondary buckling and others,appear in typical flank angle.To take this into account,we investigated the preferred number of elements(6,8 or 10)generally applied to the flat plate whether it is an appropriate or more fine-sized element(or mesh)that should be considered.A useful guide is documented based on obtained outcomes which may help structural engineers select optimised mesh-size to predict ultimate strength and understand its characteristic of the flat and curved plates.

On the governing equations for the compressing process and its coupling with other processes

As a continuation of a recent linear analysis by Mao et al.(Acta Mech Sin,2010,26:355),in this paper we propose a general theoretical formulation for the compressing process in complex Newtonian fluid flows,which covers gas dynamics,aeroacoustics,nonlinear thermoviscous acoustics,viscous shock layer,etc.,as its special branches.The principle on which our formulation is based is the maximally natural and dynamic Helmholtz decomposition of the Navier-Stokes equation,along with the kinematic Helmholtz decomposition of the velocity field.The central results are the new dilatation equation and velocity-potential equation,which are the counterparts of vorticity transport equation and vector stream-function equation for the shearing process,respectively.Various couplings of the compressing process with shearing and thermal processes,including its physical sources,are carefully identified.While the possible applications and influences of the new formulation are yet to be explored,our preliminary discussion on the pros and cons of previous formulations pertain to acoustic analogy and that on the process splitting and coupling in highly compressible turbulence indicates that at least the formulation can serve as a new frame of reference by which one may gain some additional insight and thereby develop new approaches to the multi-process complex flow problems.