A Study on the Safety of Carbody for Railway Vehicles

摘要

To check the structural strength of the carbody of the newly-made gondola car, load was added to the underframe of the gondola car. The objective of this study is to evaluate whether or not the underframe of a gondola car under the maximal strength is safe. A gondola car for transporting railroad freight is usually designed and made of SM490YA steel and SS400 steel. The carbody of rolling stock is a principal structure that supports major equipment of the underframe and the freight. Therefore, the strength evaluation of this structure is important. Both structural analysis and loading test were performed under the loading condition. Prior to the evaluation of structural strength, finite element method software was used for structural analyses on stress distribution in a carbody of a gondola car. The strain gauges were attached on the carbody based on FEM results. A vertical load test, compressive load test, measurement of deflection amount and a natural frequency measurement test were conducted.