Rail vehicle passing through a turnout: Analysis of different turnout designs and wheel profiles

Rodrigo Lagos Cereceda, Asier Alonso, Jordi Vinolas, Xabier Perez

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

46 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In recent years, different systems have been developed in order to improve the dynamic behaviour of railway vehicles when passing through turnouts. Some of these improvements consist in varying the geometry of the switch itself and including moveable crossing vees. It is worth mentioning that they are designed by taking a certain wheel profile into consideration, i.e. it is assumed that the wheel profile does not change. The objective of the current study is to determine the influence that the turnout design has on vehicle dynamics, as well as the influence that the variability in wheel profiles can have on the effectiveness of the different systems. In order to do this, the MBS software Simpack was used to model one vehicle with two different turnouts and four different profiles. The results show that the geometrical design of the turnout has a critical influence on the vehicle/turnout. We also concluded that the wheel profile does not have a significant influence when the vehicle passes through turnouts.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)587-602
Number of pages16
JournalProceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit
Volume226
Issue number6
Early online date23 Apr 2012
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2012
Externally publishedYes

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