Fundamentals of vehicle–track coupled dynamics

TLDR: In this article, a three-dimensional vehicle-track coupled dynamics model is developed in which a typical railway passenger vehicle is modelled as a 35-degree-of-freedom multi-body system.

Abstract: This paper presents a framework to investigate the dynamics of overall vehicle-track systems with emphasis on theoretical modelling, numerical simulation and experimental validation. A three-dimensional vehicle-track coupled dynamics model is developed in which a typical railway passenger vehicle is modelled as a 35-degree-of-freedom multi-body system. A traditional ballasted track is modelled as two parallel continuous beams supported by a discrete-elastic foundation of three layers with sleepers and ballasts included. The non-ballasted slab track is modelled as two parallel continuous beams supported by a series of elastic rectangle plates on a viscoelastic foundation. The vehicle subsystem and the track subsystem are coupled through a wheel-rail spatial coupling model that considers rail vibrations in vertical, lateral and torsional directions. Random track irregularities expressed by track spectra are considered as system excitations by means of a time-frequency transformation technique. A fast explicit integration method is applied to solve the large nonlinear equations of motion of the system in the time domain. A computer program named TTISIM is developed to predict the vertical and lateral dynamic responses of the vehicle-track coupled system. The theoretical model is validated by full-scale field experiments, including the speed-up test on the Beijing-Qinhuangdao line and the high-speed running test on the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang line. Differences in the dynamic responses analysed by the vehicle-track coupled dynamics and by the classical vehicle dynamics are ascertained in the case of vehicles passing through curved tracks.