Modeling and Linear Analysis of High-Speed Articulated Trainsets

1995PDFTech ReportTTD-No. VA-3204DTRS-57-93-D-00027High speed ground transportationHigh speed vehiclesDynamic modelsMathematical analysisArticulated carsMultiple unit trainsData analysisRailroad safetyUnited StatesBattelleHaque, ImtiazLiu, ChengyuZhu, GuangClemson UniversityBattelleJohn A. Volpe National Transportation Systems CenterNTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-High Speed Ground TransportationNTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-RAIL TRANSPORTATIONVolpe National Transportation Systems Center, Technical Reference CenterThis report describes analytical activities that were performed for The Volpe Center as part of Technical Task Directive (TTD) No. V A-3204, Dynamic Analysis Support for Evaluation of HSGGT Systems, (Contract No. DTRS-57-93-D-00027, Multiple Contractor Resource Base: Vehicle, Guide way, and Terminal Systems). The overall scope of this ITD is to acquire, develop, maintain, and apply analytical models for predicting the safety-related dynamic performance of High Speed Guided Ground Transportation (HSGGT) systems, including High-Speed Rail (HSR) and magnetically-levitated (Maglev) configurations. This work supports the mission of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to ensure the safety of such systems if deployed in the United States.The activities in the study reported here-in focused on the safety-related dynamic performance of articulated HSR train sets, of which the French TGV and the Spanish Talgo are examples. With articulated train sets, adjacent car bodies share a common bogie, and the car body-to-car body connections are carefully designed for effective high-speed performance. Traditionally, single vehicle models of rail vehicles have been used to evaluate safety-related dynamic performance (e.g., lateral stability, curving performance and forced response). However, a single vehicle model may be an inaccurate representation of an articulated train set because of the relatively strong coupling between car bodies. The work presented in this report focused on developing a set of linear dynamic models of a generalized articulated train set. Computer codes were developed for predicting lateral stability and vertical/pitch dynamic response to track irregularities. The codes were exercised in limited parameter studies to investigate the influence of train set length, articulation joint characteristics and car-to-truck suspension characteristics on stability, forced response and ride quality. User's manuals for the codes are provided in companion documents