Title: Identification of railway track quality and safety through the dynamic inertial response of railway carbody and truck

Authors: Roberto Spinola Barbosa

Addresses: Mechanical Engineering Department, Polytechnic School of the University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, SP, 05508-030, Brazil

Abstract: An extended version of the inertial measuring system installed in the carbody and trucks, is used to evaluate the railway track quality and safety, observed from the vehicle dynamic performance point of view. The system measures the dynamic movements of the carbody and is extended to observe also the truck attitude and suspension torsion due to irregular track geometry. System equations for the inverse carbody and truck dynamic problem, augmented with the suspension torsion equation, are solved to directly estimate the wheels' driving forces, directly correlated with the vehicle safety. The results of a test campaign travelling on the irregular track, identify the full vehicle and trucks attitude and the suspension torsion angular movement. The safety index and the location of the most potential hazard region for track maintenance purposes were identified. Good correlation between safety index and measured track geometry is observed, being this method a promising technique.

Keywords: dynamic; safety; vehicle; railway; track; irregularity; truck; suspension.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.2021.118247

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 2021 Vol.28 No.4, pp.542 - 562

Received: 22 Dec 2019
Accepted: 04 Jan 2020
Published online: 18 Oct 2021 *

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