Investigation on determining specifications of rubber bushes in railway vehicles which achieve the dynamic vibration absorber effect by the bogies and isolate the excitation force simultaneously

Abstract

It is essential to reduce the flexural vibration of railway vehicle carbodies to improve the ride comfort of passengers. This study focuses on the rubber bushes installed in the longitudinal connecting devices between bogies and a carbody such as traction links and yaw dampers. To isolate the excitation force by the bogies to the carbody, lower rigidity of the rubber bushes is advantageous. On the other hand, it is reported that the masses of the bogies function as dynamic vibration absorbers (DVAs) by tuning the rigidity of the rubber bushes appropriately. In this study, the characteristics of the rubber bushes are investigated to achieve the DVA effect and the isolation of the excitation forces simultaneously, although which is a contradictory requirement. The relation between the displacement and the force is optimized using a simple analytical model under the conditions where the rubber bushes have “displacement-dependent” rigidity characteristics.