Carbody and Passengers in Rail Vehicle Dynamics

Abstract: The carbody plays an important role in rail vehicle dynamics.This thesis aims atdeveloping validated modelling methods tostudy its dynamics, how it is excited on trackand how itinteracts with the passengers. The primary interest is ridecomfort,considering vibrations up to 20 Hz. In this frequencyrange, the structural flexibility ofthe carbody is of majorconcern. The models are intended for use intime-domainsimulation, calling for small-sized models to reducecomputational time and costs. Keyparameters are proposed toselect carbody eigenmodes for inclusion in a flexiblemultibodymodel, and to quantify the interaction between passengers andcarbody.Extensive comparisons between measurements and correspondingsimulations arecarried out in a case study. On-track measurementsare performed to obtain operatingdeflection shapes and powerspectral densities of the accelerations in the carbody.Thecomplete vehicle is modelled using the pieces of softwareGENSYS (flexible multibodymodel) and ANSYS (finite element modelof the carbody). Actual, measured trackirregularities are used asinput. In order to investigate the influence of passengerload,experimental modal analysis of the carbody is performed withand without passengers.Also, amplitude dependence is examined.Simple models, based on human-body modelsfrom literature, of thepassenger-carbody system are proposed and validated.Verticalseating dynamics is considered. The models areimplemented and tested in the casestudy. Finally, ideas on modelreduction and approximation are presented and applied.The main conclusions drawn from the study are that    the structural flexibility of the carbody must be takeninto account when predictingvertical vibration comfort. It ispossible to predict which carbody modes that willcontributemost to the vibrations.    the carbody dynamical properties depend on the excitationamplitude.    passengers and carbody interact significantly.- theproposed models describe the interaction quite well. Theproposed passenger-carbodymodel gives an upper boundary on theinteraction.    the proposed passenger-seat-carbody model can be used tostudy the influence of theseat parameters on the interaction.This merits to be investigated further, however.Keywords: Carbody, Experimental modal analysis, Human-bodydynamics, Modelreduction, Multibody dynamics, Operatingdeflection shapes, Rail-vehicle dynamics,Ride comfort, Seatingdynamics, Structural dynamics.