An experimental evaluation of the effect of rail vehicles truck suspensions on wheel-rail forces

Author

Ahmadian, Mehdi ; White, Dams L.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Virginia Polytech. Inst. & State Univ., Blacksburg, VA, USA

fYear

1999

fDate

1999

Firstpage

144

Lastpage

150

Abstract

This study evaluates the effects of truck (or bogie) suspensions on the vertical and lateral forces that are generated at the wheel-rail interface. Two different three-piece, two-axle trucks, similar to those that are commonly used in freight cars in the US, are considered for this study. One truck contained a standard suspension that had been in service a few years, the other track was equipped with an improved suspension. The results of a series of tests that had been conducted at the Heavy Tonnage Loop (HTL) of the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) in Pueblo, Colorado were analyzed to evaluate the effect of the two suspensions on the forces at the wheel-rail interface. The results indicate that the lateral loads are lower for the improved suspension, as compared to the standard suspension, for curved tracks

Keywords

force; railways; strain gauges; strain measurement; testing; Colorado; Heavy Tonnage Loop; Pueblo; Transportation Technology Center; bogie suspensions; curved tracks; freight cars; lateral forces; rail vehicles truck suspensions; standard suspension; strain gauges; two-axle trucks; vertical forces; wheel-rail forces; Bridges; Capacitive sensors; Instruments; Rails; Suspensions; Testing; Transportation; Vehicle dynamics; Vehicle safety; Wheels;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Railroad Conference, 1999. Proceedings of the 1999 ASME/IEEE Joint

Conference_Location

Dallas, TX

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5533-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/RRCON.1999.762413

Filename

762413