Numerical study on the effect by the structural characteristics of carbody shell faces on elastic vibrations of railway vehicle carbodies

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) elastic vibrations in railway vehicle carbodies sometimes negatively impact ride comfort, and efficient numerical analysis methods are required to study effective countermeasures. The authors proposed in their former work a new vibration analysis model in which the railway vehicle carbody is modeled as a box-like structure composed of elastic plates, straight beams, and curved beams. This model can easily express complex 3D vibration shapes observed in actual carbody, such as the interaction between the roof, floor, and side structures. In this paper, an improved version of the previous model is proposed, firstly. Then, a series of numerical studies are carried out by changing the structural properties of each face of the carbody shell, including cross-sectional shapes or bending rigidities, to investigate their effect on the natural frequencies. According to the numerical results, it has been shown that the side pillars primarily affect the modes with cross-sectional deformation of the carbody. Additionally, as a general tendency, the bending and shear rigidities of the roof panel have been found to have a relatively significant effect on the first bending and the diagonal distortion modes.