Zaigang Chen

A locomotive–track coupled vertical dynamics model with gear transmissions

ABSTRACT A gear transmission system is a key element in a locomotive for the transmission of traction or braking forces between the motor and the wheel–rail interface. Its dynamic performance has a direct effect on the operational reliability of the locomotive and its components. This paper proposes a comprehensive locomotive–track coupled vertical dynamics model, in which the locomotive is driven by axle-hung motors. In this coupled dynamics model, the dynamic interactions between the gear transmission system and the other components, e.g. motor and wheelset, are considered based on the detailed analysis of its structural properties and working mechanism. Thus, the mechanical transmission system for power delivery from the motor to the wheelset via gear transmission is coupled with a traditional locomotive–track dynamics system via the wheel–rail contact interface and the gear mesh interface. This developed dynamics model enables investigations of the dynamic performance of the entire dynamics system under the excitations from the wheel–rail contact interface and/or the gear mesh interface. Dynamic interactions are demonstrated by numerical simulations using this dynamics model. The results indicate that both of the excitations from the wheel–rail contact interface and the gear mesh interface have a significant effect on the dynamic responses of the components in this coupled dynamics system.

The effect of the secondary lateral stopper on the compressed stability of the couplers and running safety of the locomotives

This paper aims to study the effect of the secondary lateral stopper on the compressed stability of the couplers in order to improve the running safety of the heavy-haul locomotives. The influence mechanism of the secondary lateral stopper on the compressed stability of the couplers is theoretically analyzed. To verify the effect of the secondary lateral stopper, both the simulation and the field braking tests are conducted. The multi-body dynamic model consists of two eight-axle locomotives, one dummy of freight vehicle and four detailed connected couplers. The field braking tests are conducted on the tangent line using three eight-axle locomotives. The results indicate that decreasing the free clearance and increasing the stiffness of the secondary lateral stopper both have a positive effect. However, when the free clearance decreases from 20 mm to 10 mm, there is no remarkable decrease in the yaw angles of the coupler and the car body, and the maximum lateral force of the wheelset is still out of the standard in the simulation. When the stiffness of the secondary lateral stopper increases by five times, the yaw angles of the coupler and the car body are reduced significantly and the running safety of the locomotives is also enhanced.

Locomotive dynamic performance under traction/braking conditions considering effect of gear transmissions

ABSTRACT Traction or braking operations are usually applied to trains or locomotives for acceleration, speed adjustment, and stopping. During these operations, gear transmission equipment plays a very significant role in the delivery of traction or electrical braking power. Failures of the gear transmissions are likely to cause power loses and even threaten the operation safety of the train. Its dynamic performance is closely related to the normal operation and service safety of the entire train, especially under some emergency braking conditions. In this paper, a locomotive–track coupled vertical–longitudinal dynamics model is employed with considering the dynamic action from the gear transmissions. This dynamics model enables the detailed analysis and more practical simulation on the characteristics of power transmission path, namely motor–gear transmission–wheelset–longitudinal motion of locomotive, especially for traction or braking conditions. Multi-excitation sources, such as time-varying mesh stiffness and nonlinear wheel–rail contact excitations, are considered in this study. This dynamics model is then validated by comparing the simulated results with the experimental test results under braking conditions. The calculated results indicate that involvement of gear transmission could reveal the load reduction of the wheelset due to transmitted forces. Vibrations of the wheelset and the motor are dominated by variation of the gear dynamic mesh forces in the low speed range and by rail geometric irregularity in the higher speed range. Rail vertical geometric irregularity could also cause wheelset longitudinal vibrations, and do modulations to the gear dynamic mesh forces. Besides, the hauling weight has little effect on the locomotive vibrations and the dynamic mesh forces of the gear transmissions for both traction and braking conditions under the same running speed.

Analysis of the car body stability performance after coupler jack-knifing during braking

ABSTRACT This paper aims to improve car body stability performance by optimising locomotive parameters when coupler jack-knifing occurs during braking. In order to prevent car body instability behaviour caused by coupler jack-knifing, a multi-locomotive simulation model and a series of field braking tests are developed to analyse the influence of the secondary suspension and the secondary lateral stopper on the car body stability performance during braking. According to simulation and test results, increasing secondary lateral stiffness contributes to limit car body yaw angle during braking. However, it seriously affects the dynamic performance of the locomotive. For the secondary lateral stopper, its lateral stiffness and free clearance have a significant influence on improving the car body stability capacity, and have less effect on the dynamic performance of the locomotive. An optimised measure was proposed and adopted on the test locomotive. For the optimised locomotive, the lateral stiffness of secondary lateral stopper is increased to 7875 kN/m, while its free clearance is decreased to 10 mm. The optimised locomotive has excellent dynamic and safety performance. Comparing with the original locomotive, the maximum car body yaw angle and coupler rotation angle of the optimised locomotive were reduced by 59.25% and 53.19%, respectively, according to the practical application. The maximum derailment coefficient was 0.32, and the maximum wheelset lateral force was 39.5 kN. Hence, reasonable parameters of secondary lateral stopper can improve the car body stability capacity and the running safety of the heavy haul locomotive.

Numerical Investigation on Wheel-Rail Dynamic Vibration Excited by Rail Spalling in High-Speed Railway

Spalling in contact surface of rail is a typical form of rolling contact fatigue, which is a difficult problem to solve in railway. Once the spalling occurs in the rail, the wheel-rail dynamic interaction will become more severe. The wheel-rail dynamic interaction is investigated based on the theory of vehicle-track coupled dynamics in this paper, where the excitation modes of the rail spalling failure are taken into consideration for high-speed wheel-rail system. A modified excitation model of rail spalling failure is proposed. It can enable the investigations on two kinds of excitation modes in wheel-rail system due to the rail spalling, including the pulse and the harmonic excitation modes. The excitation mode can be determined by the ratio of the spalling length to its critical length. Thus, the characteristics of wheel-rail dynamic vibration excited by two kinds of excitation are simulated in detail. Consequently, the limited value of the spalling length is suggested for high-speed railway.

Theoretical and experimental study on vertical dynamic characteristics of six-axle heavy-haul locomotive on curve

AbstractThis paper presents a method to study the vertical dynamic characteristics of a heavy-haul locomotive in curve. A quasi-static analysis model based on the static force equilibrium relationship is established to investigate the load bearing characteristics of suspension system when the locomotive runs through the curve. Then a locomotive– track coupled dynamics model is used to analyse the dynamic characteristics of wheel load in curves. Finally, a field test in curve is carried out to validate the simulated results. The theoretical analysis results indicate that due to the different twist shapes of track on the entry and exit transition curves, for some specific position in the suspension system or wheel arrangements, the corresponding vertical load along the curve length presents an asymmetry about the section of circular curve. The asymmetry is predominantly caused by the Superelevation Angle Differences (SADs) between car body, bogie frames and wheelsets. A distinct phenomenon is that the outer...