Influences of car body vertical flexibility on ride quality of passenger railway vehicles

All studies agree that the car body bending modes are the most important factors that significantly
influence the vertical ride quality
It is assumed that no wheel jump happens when the vehicle runs on track, which means the wheelsets
vertical movements are exactly the same as the track irregularity.
vertical bending, diagonal distortion, and torsion, which were considered the most important modes with
respect to carbody However, all studies agree that the carbody bending modes are the most important
factors that significantly influence the vertical ride quality.
Methods for Reducing Vertical Car body Vibrations of a Rail vehicle
Typical flexible modes that are interesting when focusing on vertical ride comfort are the first bending
mode, first torsion mod and the first so-called breathing mode resulting from cross-section shear.
Normally frequencies for the first flexible modes lie in the range of 8-15 Hz, however depending on the
vehicle configuration and settings
The human body is most sensitive to vertical vibrations in the frequency range 4-10 Hz.
Rail vehicle dynamics textbook (Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden)

Figure 1. Effect of structural flexibility on vertical acceleration

As can be seen from figure 1. When the flexibility is taken into account there is then higher acceleration
amplitudes. The dominating frequency can be estimated to about 10 Hz, a vibration frequency that
significantly influences the human ride comfort, or rather discomfort.

Figure 1 shows that Car body vertical eigenfrequency should be more than 10hz for vertical comfort and
to avoid the resonances.

Figure 2. Frequency separation for good isolation vibration

Figure 3. Four eigenmodes and eigenfrequencies for a free carbody(Adtranz:bombardier)

In figure 3 there are 4 eigenmodes of a passenger car body shown and they are calculated by finite
element method.

Car body and Passenger in Rail Vehicle Dynamics

Figure 4. Eight car body mode-shapes of the S4M (Swedish railways) vehicle calculated by FEM.
Carlbrom has performed a comprehensive study on the car body structural dynamics . The study examines
the structural flexibility of the car body and what role it plays. Vibrations up to 20 Hz are considered. This
is the frequency range where structural flexibility of the car body has the largest influence.

Frequency
[Hz]

No.

Mode shape

F1

First vertical bending

9.1

F2

First lateral bending

12.2

F3

Torsion 1

12.8

F4

Breathing 1

13.4

F5

Torsion 2

13.9

F6

Breathing 2

14.3

F7

Breathing 3

15.0

F8

Second vertical bending

16.2

Table 1. Calculated mode shapes and undamped eigenfrequencies.