Fatigue Life Evaluation of a Railway Vehicle Bogie Using an Integrated Dynamic Simulation

Abstract

An integrated design methodology has been developed for the fatigue life evaluation of railway vehicle bogies. In principle, there are five parts in the procedure: specification and measurement of track irregularities; modelling a railway vehicle and description of rail-wheel profiles; obtaining the railway vehicle suspension load histories; dynamic analysis and stress evaluation of the bogie frame; fatigue life evaluation of the bogie. The whole procedure has been applied to a typical London Underground railway vehicle. The theoretical results have been validated against field test data and fatigue calculations have indicated good agreement with operational data from the actual vehicles. It has been shown that a design methodology for railway vehicle bogies based on the track profiles on which they will run and on their own structural characteristics is possible and can be used at an appropriate stage in the design process.