Design and safety analysis of a 11-Waggon consist for transporting rails

ABSTRACT

A special case study of a rail transport consist comprised of 11 wagons on three-piece bogies was carried out using advanced multi-body vehicle simulations to evaluate if the safety and stability of the wagons would be compromised by loading 39 continuous welded rails on the wagon decks. Each rail was 139 m long and laterally fastened to the wagon decks. The wagon model components, including a car body, two bolsters, 4 sideframes and 4 wheelsets, were connected by non-linear spring and damping elements. A non-linear coupler was used to connect the adjacent wagon models. A twist simulation for a single wagon model was conducted and the results were compared with experimental data for validation. The lateral stability analysis found that the lowest critical hunting speed was 90 km/h for the empty wagon model, which satisfies the current operational speed range from 0 to 70 km/h. Safety simulations were conducted on the curved track geometry modelled from the actual track alignment and included FRA Class 4 track irregularities. The safety simulation results indicated that the 11-wagon consist performed within the maximum safety criteria limits as stipulated in the AS7509:2017 standard.

KEYWORDS:

• Wagon modelling
• wagon consist modelling
• hunting instability
• wheel L/V ratio
• wheel unloading
• digital twin

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available for non-commercial research studies only from the authors upon request. All requests should be sent to Dr. Yan Sun, email: [email protected].

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by Arc Infrastructure, Australia.

Notes on contributors

Yan Quan Sun

Dr Yan Quan Sun completed his PhD research in Mechanical Engineering (Rail Vehicle-Track Interaction Dynamics) at the Centre for Railway Engineering , Central Queensland University in 2002 gaining his PhD in 2003. He has more than 100 scientific publications and two books. His research interests include rail vehicle–track performance and safety analysis based on system modelling and dynamics, train crashworthiness analysis, rail vehicle–track performance monitoring based on the measurements on vehicle masses, rail track condition assessment based on vehicle performance, longitudinal train dynamics and locomotive traction, energy analysis, and rail vehicle and suspension design based on vehicle dynamics analysis.

Dwayne Nielsen

Associate Professor Dwayne Nielsen has worked in civil infrastructure construction and below rail asset management for over 30 years. He currently works as a Principal Research Fellow and Lecturer in civil maintenance and project management at Central Queensland University. His research interests include below rail asset management and life cycle cost optimisation of civil asset maintenance. Associate Professor Nielsen previously worked at Aurizon for 15 years where he was employed as a technical analyst in civil asset maintenance management.

Qing Wu

Dr Qing Wu is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Railway Engineering, Central Queensland University (CQU). He has a PhD in the topic of heavy haul trains, a Master of Engineering in the topic of heavy haul locomotives and a Bachelor of Engineering in the topic of heavy haul wagons. His PhD thesis (CQU 2016) won the RTSA 2017 Postgraduate Thesis Award and CQU 2017 Best RHD Thesis Award. Before joining CQU in 2013, he worked in the State Key Laboratory of Traction Power in China for one year as a Research Assistant. He has more than 60 publications in the railway domain. His current research interests include train system dynamics, wagon/locomotive dynamics, track dynamics, data analysis, multi-objective optimisations and parallel computing.

Wenhsi Chua

Dr Wenhsi Chua is a Rolling Stock Engineer at Arc Infrastructure in Western Australia. He received his Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) degree at the Queensland University of Technology in 2005 and PhD in Tribology at the University of Western Australia in 2014. His PhD thesis work was focused on thin lubricating organic films at the friction interface. Towards the end of his candidature in 2011, Dr Chua joined an engineering consultancy as a project engineer for the mining industry, and later the rail industry in 2013 as a rolling stock engineer.

Maksym Spiryagin

Professor Maksym Spiryagin works as the Deputy Director at the Centre for Railway Engineering at Central Queensland University. He received his PhD in the field of Railway Transport in 2004 at the East Ukrainian National University. His research focused on rail vehicle design, wheel-rail contact mechanics and tribology problems and the development of locomotive traction, real-time models, vehicle mechatronic systems and digital twin techniques. He has more than 250 scientific publications, five authored and two edited books and 20 patents as one of the inventors.