APPLICATION OF THE FINITE ELEMENT TECHNIQUE TO THE STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF ROAD AND RAIL VEHICLES AT LONDON TRANSPORT

The structures of road and rail vehicles being used by London transport are of conventional design. Road vehicles consist of a separate body and chassis, the main structural members being steel and the skin panels being aluminum. Underground rolling stock, because of the constraints imposed on shape, size and interior layout, are of "tubular construction" and in most stocks consist of an aluminum roof and bodyside, with large openings for windows and doors, mounted on a heavy steel underframe. The structural design of these vehicles has been the responsibility of the carbuilders and has been based on traditional stress analysis techniques consisting, in the main, of equivalent framework type analyses and relying heavily on past experience. Recently, however, London transport has been taking a greater involvement in the design of these vehicles and there has been a departure from the conventional designs. An emphasis on light weight has meant the use of aluminum throughout the vehicles and there is a tendency towards a more integral type of structure (as opposed to separate body and chassis) in the case of road vehicles. This departure from conventionality has led to the need for a more refined stress analysis technique. An investigation into the structural behavior of an underground railway coach has shown that the finite element technique is superior to the other techniques in predicting stresses and deflections. The dynamics section which has recently been set up within the design division of the chief mechanical engineer's department at London transport, has been applying the finite element technique to anlaysing bus and railway coach structures (including wheels) and to the calculation of the natural frequencies of these structures. The computer program used is the newpac package developed by the engineering research division of British Rail at Derby, the computation being performed at Derby on the IBM 370 computer. The computation facilities include an input/output graphical display which enables data checking and presentation. /Author/TRRL/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Institute of Physics (Great Britain), Stress Analysis Group, Stress Vibration and Noise Analysis in Vehicles. Proceedings edited by H.G. Gibbs and T.H. Richards, Wiley Publication, 485p, 1975.
• Corporate Authors:

  Applied Science Publishers Limited

  22 Rippleside Commercial Estate, Ripple Road
  Barking, Essex,   England 
• Authors:
  • Hillel, H
  • Sayer, J
  • Phipps, R A
  • Gibbs, H G
  • Richards, T H
• Conference:
  • Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Institute of Physics (Great Britain), Stress Analysis Group, Stress Vibration and Noise Analysis in Vehicles. Proceedings edited by H.G. Gibbs and T.H. Richards, Wiley Publication, 485p, 1975.
• Publication Date: 1975

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 351-388

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aluminum; Buses; Computer programs; Dynamic tests; Finite element method; Lightweight materials; Passenger cars; Public transit; Railroad transportation; Rapid transit cars; Structural analysis; Vehicle design
• Identifier Terms: British Rail; London Transport
• Uncontrolled Terms: Dynamic analysis
• Old TRIS Terms: Passenger car design
• ITRD Terms: 1057: Air transport network; 7168: Aluminium; 1272: Bus; 8525: Conference; 1041: Depot (transp); 9011: Design (overall design); 6490: Finite element method; 3322: Frame; 8645: Software; 5573: Stress analysis; 8119: United Kingdom
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Public Transportation; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00137698
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• Report/Paper Numbers: Proc Paper
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 11 1981 12:00AM