Optimising the location of wagon gravity centre to improve the curving performance

ABSTRACT

The location of wagon gravity centre (WGC) has a significant effect on the wheel-rail contact force. For the sake of improving the curving performance of a freight wagon, it is necessary to optimise the location of WGC by shifting the position of cargo or adopting the balance weight. This paper proposes a data analysis methodology that demonstrates the safe distribution scope of WGC based on the results of dynamics simulations. A general model of the loaded wagon is built using the multibody dynamics software VI-Rail. The simulation conditions are designed to achieve the analog of vehicle running circumstances in reality. The simulation results under various conditions provide us full evidence to demarcate the safe locations of WGC and derive the Pareto-optimal solutions. The methodology presented in the paper can be applied to an arbitrary case of railway freight transportation to promote the vehicle running safety.

KEYWORDS:

• Railway freight transportation
• wagon gravity centre
• curving performance
• dynamics simulation
• Pareto-optimal solution

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number U1834209]; the National Key Research and Development Program of China [grant number 2017YFB1200701].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China: [grant number U1834209]; National Key Research and Development Program of China: [grant number 2017YFB1200701].