Abstract
In this study, the authors have investigated how non-structural members in the carbody influence on the rigidity and the vibration characteristics of a commuter type railway vehicle. Additional ceiling frames, instead of the whole "inner ring" sub-structures, which are composed of reinforcing beams on the floor, side and roof structures and evaluated in the previous study, are attached to "Rigidity Test Car", which have been designed and manufactured for above purpose. Excitation tests have been performed, and the results have shown that the proposed ceiling frames have largely affected the natural frequencies, vibration shapes and response accelerations of the carbody, nevertheless of the additional mass of the ceiling frames are much smaller than that of the whole inner ring. It have been verified that the rails for hand straps are also effective to improve the rigidity of the carbody when these are properly attached to the carbody.
