Fatigue Strength Research on Aluminum Alloy Car Body for Railway Vehicle Based on Finite Element Analysis Method

Abstract. As the aluminum alloy car body was used to the lightweight design of railway vehicle, the fatigue reliability has become a key issue. In order to analyze the fatigue strength of aluminum alloy car body, the Goodman fatigue limit diagram was drawn according to the mechanical characteristics of aluminum alloy. The car body finite element model was established. The static strength and fatigue strength analysis load cases of car body were determined based on the EN 12663 standard. After calculating and preparing post-processing analysis program, the car body fatigue strength was evaluated. The results show that under the static strength load cases, the maximum equivalent stress of car body which appears in the corner of the door is 225.481MPa and the maximum vertical deformation of car body is 6.87mm, both of them meet the static strength and stiffness requirements; Under the fatigue load cases, the minimum safety factor of car body fatigue strength is 2.41,which meets the fatigue strength requirement. The fatigue strength analysis method of aluminum alloy car body provides the reference data for lightweight design of car body