Numerical Investigation of the Dynamic Performance and Riding Comfort of a Straddle-Type Monorail Subjected to Moving Trains

Abstract

The driving comfort of a straddle-type monorail, while considering the influence of the bridge structure, was studied on the basis of multibody dynamics and the finite element method. In this study, the coupled vehicle-bridge model was established through SIMPACK and ANSYS; the 3D model of the bridge was established in ANSYS, and the vehicle model with 35 degrees of freedom (DOFs) was established in SIMPACK. The influence of the vehicle speed, pier height, track irregularity, and vehicle load on riding comfort was studied. Overall, straddle-type monorails had a good running stability, and the lateral comfort of the vehicle was better than the vertical comfort, due to symmetrical horizontal wheels. As the vehicle speed increased, the acceleration of the bridge and vehicle increased accordingly. Track irregularity had a substantial influence on riding comfort. Three types of track irregularity were simulated, and this factor should be strictly controlled to be smoother than the Chinese national A-level road roughness. The bridge pier height had a notable influence on the lateral riding comfort. In addition, this study attempted to improve riding comfort from the perspective of increasing the bridge stiffness, which could be achieved by increasing the cross-beam thickness or the track beam height.

Seismic fragility analysis of railway reinforced concrete bridges considering real‐time vehicle‐bridge interaction with the aid of co‐simulation techniques

“…16 Τime-integration algorithms developed for the VBI problem may either solve the coupled system directly (coupled algorithms) (Yang et al, 2016), or solve the vehicle subsystem and bridge subsystem separately in a co-simulation environment (iterative algorithms). 3,17 An alternative approach that potentially incorporates the advantages of both coupled and iterative schemes is the dynamic localized version of the Lagrange multipliers method. This methodology introduces an additional artificial auxiliary point at the contact interface, assigns two sets of Lagrange multipliers, and states two sets of kinematic constraints between the extra point and the other contact points.…”

“…These indicators of railway bridges were well-evaluated and formed a specific evaluation criterion and a serviceability limit state for the bridge system. 17 Riding safety consists of running safety and running stability. Running safety is related to the fact that the train will not derail or overturn, which is usually evaluated by the derailment coefficient, the rate of wheel load reduction, the lateral wheelset force, the overturning coefficient, and other indicators.…”

Vehicle‐Bridge Coupling Vibration Analysis for Simply Supported Girders of High‐Speed Railway Bridges Based on the Cross‐Sectional Decentralized Centre of Mass and Shear

“…Shi et al [10] used the idea of dynamic flexibility to establish a frequency-domain model of high-speed railway vehicle-track-bridge vertical coupling dynamics and solved the dynamic response of the track system and bridge structure under unit simple harmonic excitation and wheelrail geometric roughness excitation, respectively. Based on multibody dynamics and finite element methods, Gao et al [11] have developed a coupled vehicle-bridge model by SIMPACK and ANSYS. A 3D model of the bridge was built in ANSYS, and a vehicle model with 35 degrees of freedom was built in SIMPACK.…”

“…Due to the complexity of the coupled vibration mechanism of railway bridges and trains, it is generally difficult for general-purpose finite element software to accurately consider the complex wheel-rail interaction relationship. In the finite element analysis of bridge structures, none of the literature [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] has considered the effect of mass-shear heterocentricity of the cross section. ere are even fewer studies on the coupled vibration analysis of the bridge considering the mass-shear heterocentre.…”

Analysis and Optimization of Driving Attitude and Oscillation Characteristics of Suspension-Type Small Rail Vehicles

“…He et al established an improved trainbridge interaction model, investigated the dynamic performance of the suspended monorail vehicle on the circle curve bridge, and found that the rational allocation of shock absorbers could effectively suppress the vibration of the vehicle [14]. Gao et al established a coupled vehicle-bridge model of the straddle-type monorail based on multibody dynamics and the finite element method and studied the influences of vehicle speed, pier height, track irregularity, and vehicle load on ride comfort [15]. Taking the straddletype monorail as the research object, Junchao et al established a dynamic model of vehicles and the tire-track contact model to analyze the influences of different velocities and tire stiffness on vibration characteristics of vehicles [16].…”