An integrated draft gear model with the consideration of wagon body structural characteristics.

With the increase of railway wagon axle load and the growth of marshalling quantity, the problem caused by impact and vibration of vehicles is increasingly serious, which leads to the damage of vehicle structures and the components. In order to improve the reliability of longitudinal connection model for vehicle impact tests, a new railway wagon longitudinal connection model was developed to simulate and analyse vehicle impact tests. The new model is based on characteristics of longitudinal force transmission for vehicles and parts. In this model, carbodies and bogies were simplified to a particle system that can vibrate in the longitudinal direction, which corresponded to a stiffness-damping vibration system. The model consists of three sub-models, that is, coupler and draft gear sub-model, centre plate sub-model and carbody structure sub-model. Compared with conventional draft gear models, the new model was proposed with geometrical and mechanical relations of friction draft gears considered and with behaviours of sticking, sliding and impact between centre plate and centre bowl added. Besides, virtual springs between discrete carbodies were built to describe the structural deformation of carbody. A computation program for longitudinal dynamics based on vehicle impact tests was accomplished to simulate. Comparisons and analyses regarding the train dynamics outputs and vehicle impact tests were conducted. Simulation results indicate that the new wagon longitudinal connection model can provide a practical application environment for wagons, and the outputs of vehicle impact tests agree with those of field tests. The new model can also be used to study on longitudinal vibrations of different vehicles, of carbody and bogie, and of carbody itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]