TY - GEN
T1 - Simulation of a Railway Vehicle Running in a Mountainous Track at a Prescribed Speed
AU - Magalhães, H.
AU - Ambrosio, J.
AU - Pombo, Joao
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - In railway dynamics, the simulation of railway vehicles in realistic operation conditions demands detailed models of the vehicle and of the track. In general, the motion of the vehicles along the dynamic analyses is ensured by initial or constant velocities, with no other methods being used to control the speed of the train. However, real railway tracks are characterized not only by curves with different radii and cant angles, but also by slopes that accelerate or slow down the vehicle. For these reasons, it is crucial to control the speed of the vehicle in order to ensure not only the realism of the simulation, but also to enable more accurate assessment of the safety and comfort of the passengers. In this paper, a light rail vehicle, used by the Portuguese rail company, is simulated on a mountainous railway track. The vehicle speed is controlled by drivers applied on the traction wheelsets. These drivers are implemented using the kinematic constraints described in this paper. The track geometry information, namely, the radius of the curves and their cant angles, is used here to set the vehicle speed as function of the track length. In particular, it is considered that the vehicle travels: at a nominal velocity in the tangent segments; at a velocity that exhibits zero non-compensated acceleration in curve segments; and, in the transition curves, the velocity of the vehicle varies. The methodologies developed in this work are suitable for the performance of realistic simulations with several applications, for example, a vehicle homologation studies.
AB - In railway dynamics, the simulation of railway vehicles in realistic operation conditions demands detailed models of the vehicle and of the track. In general, the motion of the vehicles along the dynamic analyses is ensured by initial or constant velocities, with no other methods being used to control the speed of the train. However, real railway tracks are characterized not only by curves with different radii and cant angles, but also by slopes that accelerate or slow down the vehicle. For these reasons, it is crucial to control the speed of the vehicle in order to ensure not only the realism of the simulation, but also to enable more accurate assessment of the safety and comfort of the passengers. In this paper, a light rail vehicle, used by the Portuguese rail company, is simulated on a mountainous railway track. The vehicle speed is controlled by drivers applied on the traction wheelsets. These drivers are implemented using the kinematic constraints described in this paper. The track geometry information, namely, the radius of the curves and their cant angles, is used here to set the vehicle speed as function of the track length. In particular, it is considered that the vehicle travels: at a nominal velocity in the tangent segments; at a velocity that exhibits zero non-compensated acceleration in curve segments; and, in the transition curves, the velocity of the vehicle varies. The methodologies developed in this work are suitable for the performance of realistic simulations with several applications, for example, a vehicle homologation studies.
KW - Multibody simulation
KW - Prescribed speed
KW - Railway dynamics
KW - Real tracks
KW - Virtual homologation
U2 - 10.4203/ccp.110.100
DO - 10.4203/ccp.110.100
M3 - Conference contribution
SN - 9781905088652
T3 - Civil-Comp Proceedings
BT - Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Railway Technology
A2 - Pombo, J.
PB - Civil-Comp Press
T2 - 3rd International Conference on Railway Technology
Y2 - 5 April 2016 through 8 April 2016
ER -