MINIMUM VEHICLE--GUIDEWAY CLEARANCES BASED ON A CONTACT FREQUENCY CRITERION

An important consideration in the design of air cushion and magnetic suspensions is the power required to suspend or levitate the vehicle in equilibrium. Since this power level increases with an increase in the equilibrium clearance between the base of the suspension and the guideway, it is desirable to keep the design clearance as small as possible. Ideally, the base of the vehicle would never contact the guideway. Statistically, however, contact does occur and to establish a general criteria for defining minimum clearances based on the frequency of contact would be extremely difficult since the effects of contact, such as noise, vibration, wear, etc., vary with different design configurations and materials. The criteria of a very low average contact frequency 0.001 contacts/sec is used in this paper to define the lower bound on vehicle-guideway clearance. Results are tabulated for an optimum suspension with heave dynamics and guideway irregularity inputs only. The sensitivity of the minimum clearance to guideway irregularity amplitude and wavelength characteristics and to RMS levels of primary suspension acceleration (force) levels is demonstrated. The results that equilibrium clearances on the order of 0.03 in. are tolerable for operation over guideways as smooth as welded rail and the clearances on the order of 1.5 in. may be required for operation over quideways as rough as smooth highways.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was contributed by the Automatic Control Division of the ASME for publication in the Journal of Dynamic Systems, measurements, and control.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Mechanical Engineers

  Two Park Avenue
  New York, NY  United States  10016-5990
• Authors:
  • Hullender, D A
• Publication Date: 1974-1

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 11 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Car clearances (Railroads); Dynamics; Guideways; High speed track; Magnetic levitation; Suspension systems; Tracked air cushion vehicles; Tracked vehicles; Vehicle dynamics; Vehicles
• Old TRIS Terms: Clearances; Guideway vehicles; High speed tracked vehicles
• Subject Areas: Public Transportation; Railroads; Terminals and Facilities; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00072663
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Report/Paper Numbers: No. 74-Aut-L
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 9 1975 12:00AM