Abstract
The reliability evaluation is required for subway electric multiple units (EMUs) to guarantee the performance and safety during the operation of EMUs. In this investigation, the EMUs used for over twenty years were selected for the reliability evaluation. Moreover, various types of engineering analysis techniques were used for the current performance and safety evaluation. Several characterization means including nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques, corrosion testing, and three-dimensional measurements, were employed for the evaluation of car bodies and bogies. The NDE techniques include ultrasonic testing for thickness change and flaw detection, magnetic particle testing for the detection of surface flaws, and radiography, In order to confirm the changes in dimension of car body or bogies, three- dimensional measurements were performed using the laser tracker. The measurement results were compared with the dimensions in original drawing. Moreover, stress and structural analyses using commercial finite element method (FEM) software provided important information on stress distribution and load transfer mechanisms, and the FEM results were compared with running safety testing results during test running. In this investigation, various advanced engineering analysis techniques for the reliability analysis of subway electric multiple units have been introduced and the results of the analysis have been used to provide the critical information for the criteria of reliability assessment.
