Correlation between Track Irregularities and Vehicle Dynamic Response Based on Measurements and Simulations

Abstract: Deviations from the design track geometry are called track irregularities, which are a main excitation mechanism in the track–vehicle dynamic system, and very important to monitor and maintain to have trac on a line run safely and comfortably. Especially during vehicle acceptance testing, it is important that a new vehicle behaves close to design predictions and within limit values, thus it is important to be able to describe track irregularities in a consistent way.There are several methods which quantify the eects track irregularities have on a vehicle while running along the track. Most common is analyse standard deviations and percentiles and maximum values over sections with pre-defined length. However, these quantities do not correlate well with the vehicle dynamic response, e.g. two track sections with similar maxima and standard deviations can result in very dierent response of the vehicle.To improve the correlation between track irregularities and vehicle re- sponse measures, it is recommended by past research to use multiple regres- sion analysis to take e.g. vehicle speed and track curvature into account as well. Other methods range from derivatives of track irregularities, via trans- fer functions and vehicle filters to neural networks. Common for all these methods are that there is either still slight inconsistencies in the results or that they are tailored for certain vehicle types on specific lines. As a result, the preferred method to evaluate track irregularities is still to use standard deviations.In this thesis, data from three vehicles in two measurement campaigns is evaluated using a single degree of freedom model as inspiration to break down the path from track to vehicle into several steps. A weak link in these steps is identified, which shows significantly lower correlation coecients than the other steps. The weak link is the step from vertical track irregularity second spatial derivative to vertical axle box acceleration divided by the squared vehicle speed. A variable wavelength range Dx is introduced, as an alternative to the common D1 (3–25 m), D2 (25–70 m) and D3 (70–150 m) wavelength ranges. Its wavelength range corresponds to the vehicle response band-pass filter frequencies and is thus speed dependent.Simulations are also carried out to investigate the weak link and for the possibility to vary parameters that cannot be changed during on-track mea- surements. A multi-body system model of the passenger coach Bim 547.5 is used, together with recorded track data and vehicle speed from the on-track measurements. The varied parameters have rather low sensitivity and aect results to a small extent. Most impact has the randomly varying vertical track stiness which aects the vertical wheel–rail forces and axle box accelerations.In future work, it should be explored if it is possible – and in such case how – to separate the eects of varying track stiness from the track irreg- ularities. This to better understand when a vehicle response is linked more to the track irregularities or to the track flexibility. The weak link identified in the steps from track to vehicle should also be further explored, perhaps by extending the underlying model or evaluate a dierent set of measurements.