Compression, tension & lifting stability on a meter gauge flat Wagon: an experimental approach

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the experimental study of the compression, tension, and lifting stability test on a meter gauge flat wagon. The freight wagon comprises flat body structure and two bogies, where the flat surface is used to transport containers or goods. Two load cells (2000 KN) of HBM Quantum X-MX840 with CATMAN easy software is used for the compression, tension, and lifting stability test. As per EN 12663-2:2010 standard for axial compression test maximum force of 2MN is applied while for diagonal compression test 0.4MN force is applied. The tension test is carried out by applying a maximum tensile load of 1.5 MN while the lifting test is performed with 29T (empty condition) and 57.5T (loaded condition) wagon load. Strain gauges are pasted on identified critical location (based on FEM simulation in ANSYS) of the wagon to capture the strain values. The steady-state strain values are measured and recorded in a data acquisition system. A standard test methodology and the testing setups are established for freight wagon testing. The measured strain values are analyzed for the wagon specific requirements. It is observed that during testing strain values are within the safe zone as per the designed payload for this wagon.

KEYWORDS:

• Flat Wagon
• compression test
• tension test
• lifting test
• strain gauge

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the Titagarh Wagons Ltd (Hind Motor Division-Kolkata, India) and Titagarh Wagons AFR-Douai, France office for providing the design analysis and testing facility. The Authors also acknowledge NK Instruments, Kolkata for providing testing support and testing equipment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Apurba Das

Dr. Apurba Das is Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department of Netaji Subhash Engineering College, Kolkata. He received PhD from Jadavpur University, India. His basic research interests are mechanics of composites, functionally graded materials, structural health monitoring, computational mechanics, impact mechanics and fluid structure interaction. He has more than 13 years of industrial and research experience in companies like General Electric, Titagarh AFR (France) and Research Scholar. He has worked in the United States for General Electric Company on a project 7EA Gas turbine combustion system. During his work in GE he has earned six sigma Green Belt certificates for doing the project work under lean six sigma method. He has also worked in France on design and analysis of clinker waggon projects. He is also actively engaged in various industrial and research projects in domestic and internationally and also published a good number of research papers in reputed international journals.

Gopal Agarwal

Mr. Gopal Agarwal is currently working as an engineer in Reliance Industries Ltd. He has obtained his B.E. from Jadavpur University, department of Mechanical Engineering in 2019. His area of interest includes solid modelling and simulations, FEA, solid and body mechanics, dynamics of structures and vibrations.