FLEXIBLE BODY RAILROAD FREIGHT CAR. USER'S MANUAL

The freight car is considered to consist of a car body, its contents, two bolsters, and two masses representing the wheelsets/side frames combined. In reality, the car body cannot be a perfectly rigid body. Thus, the carbody flexibility is modelled by separating the car body into two rigid bodies and connecting them by a cork-like torsional stiffness. Each car body, integrated with the lading, rests on the centerplate of the bolster, having a spring-like stiffness at each of the two contact points. When the contact is lost at either or both of the two points due to car rocking, the spring force between them will be simply zero. On each bolster, a side bearing, either rigid or resilient, is seated with a clearance from the car body at equilibrium. Again, the car body is reacted by the spring-like stiffness of the side bearing when the side bearing is contacted. The bolster is bridged to the wheelset by a suspension spring on each side, which has a equivalent stiffness of the whole suspension group. The friction at the column is at present considered to be a coulomb's dry friction type. Simplifying the analysis, the two wheelsets and the two side frames at one end of the freight car are integrated into one mass. The car is considered to be travelling on staggered jointed track. Roll and bounce are also predicted.

• Corporate Authors:

  Association of American Railroads Research Center

  3140 South Federal Street
  Chicago, IL  United States  60616

  Federal Railroad Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Railway Progress Institute

  801 North Fairfax Street
  Alexandria, VA  United States  22314

  Transportation Development Agency Centre

  800 rene-Leveque Boulevard West, Suite 600
  Montreal, Quebec H3B 1X9,   Canada 
• Authors:
  • Tse, Y H
  • Martin, G C
• Publication Date: 0

Media Info

• Features: Tables;
• Pagination: 131 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Computer programs; Mathematical models; Railroad cars; Ride quality; Rocking; Rolling; Suspension systems; Train track dynamics
• Old TRIS Terms: Car rocking; Rock and roll
• Subject Areas: Railroads; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00139457
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Association of American Railroads
• Report/Paper Numbers: No. R-200
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Oct 6 1976 12:00AM