Wheel Wear Simulation of the Light Rail Vehicle A32 by Ignacio Robla Sánchez TRITA AVE 2010:42 ISSN 1651-7660 ISRN KTH/AVE/RTM-10/42-SE Postal address Visiting address Telephone E-mail Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Teknikringen 8 +46 8 790 84 76 [email protected] Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering Stockholm Fax Div. of Rail Vehicles +46 8 790 76 29 SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden Preface This MSc thesis work corresponds to the final part of my studies on Mechanical Engineering. My home university is the Technical School of Industrial Engineering (ETSII) at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM). However, I had the great opportunity to spend the last year of studies at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm as exchange student and do my thesis at the Department of Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering. This thesis work was offered by the rail vehicle manufacturer Bombardier as part of the studies they are carrying out on the field of wheel wear prediction. In my opinion it has been a great opportunity for two reasons: to have a first contact with the real life in a company and at the same time to know how research work is performed at the university. Acknowl ed gments I would like to thank Mats Berg and Sebastian Stichel for giving me the opportunity to carry out this work at KTH and Bombardier. I am very grateful to my supervisor, Roger Enblom, for his continuous support and help during this work. I also thank my colleagues at the Division of Rail Vehicles at KTH: Anneli Orvnäs, Babette Dirks and Dirk Thomas, who have been always ready to help me. Thanks to Berta Suárez, my supervisor at my home university, for her support. Finally I would like to thank Clara, my parents, my sister and friends for encouraging me during the hard moments. April 2010 Ignacio Robla Sánchez. i Abstract During the last decade, a novel methodology for wheel wear simulation has been developed in Sweden. The practical objective of this simulation procedure is to provide an integrated engineering tool to support rail vehicle design with respect to wheel wear performance and detailed understanding of wheel-rail interaction. The tool is integrated in a vehicle dynamics simulation environment. The wear calculation is based on a set of dynamic simulations, representing the vehicle, the network, and the operating conditions. The wheel profile evolution is simulated in an iterative process by adding the contribution from each simulation case and updating the profile geometry. The method is being validated against measurements by selected pilot applications. To strengthen the confidence in simulation results the scope of application should be as wide as possible in terms of vehicle classes. The purpose of this thesis work has been to try to extend the scope of validation of this method into the light rail area, simulating the light rail vehicle A32 operating in Stockholm commuter service on the line Tvärbanan. An exhaustive study of the wear theory and previous work on wear prediction has been necessary to understand the wear prediction method proposed by KTH. The dynamic behaviour of rail vehicles has also been deeply studied in order to understand the factors affecting wear in the wheel-rail contact. The vehicle model has been validated against previous studies of this vehicle. Furthermore new elements have been included in the model in order to better simulate the real conditions of the vehicle. Numerous tests have been carried out in order to calibrate the wear tool and find the settings which better match the real conditions of the vehicle. Wheel and rail wear as well as profile evolution measurements were available before this work and they are compared with those results obtained from the simulations carried out. The simulated wear at the tread and flange parts of the wheel match quite well the measurements. However, the results are not so good for the middle part, since the measurements show quite evenly distributed wear along the profile while the results from simulations show higher difference between extremes and middle part. More tests would be necessary to obtain an optimal solution. Key words : wheel wear, light rail, train, simulation, vehicle model, wear chart, wheel flange, tread, rail profile, wheel profile. ii Tabl e of content s PREFACE ............................................................................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................................................................... i ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................................... ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................................... iii 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Previous work at KTH and Bombardier ......................................................................................................... 4 1.2 SCOPE OF THIS WORK ...................................................................................................................................... 5 Thesis contents ............................................................................................................................................... 5 2 THE A32 LIGHT RAIL VEHICLE............................................................................................................ 7 2.1 VEHICLE CHARACTERISTICS ............................................................................................................................ 7 Motor bogie .................................................................................................................................................... 9 Trailer bogie ................................................................................................................................................. 11 Wheels .......................................................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 MULTIBODY SYSTEM MODEL OF THE VEHICLE ............................................................................................... 14 Original model .............................................................................................................................................. 14 Changes and additions to the original model ................................................................................................ 18 3 VEHICLE MODEL REVALIDATION ................................................................................................... 25 3.1 NOMINAL FORCES .......................................................................................................................................... 25 3.2 EIGENMODES ................................................................................................................................................. 26 3.3 LINEAR STABILITY AND CRITICAL SPEED ....................................................................................................... 29 3.4 QUASI -STATIC CURVING ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................... 32 4 WHEEL-RAIL TRIBOLOGY .................................................................................................................. 35 4.1 WHEEL -RAIL WEAR ....................................................................................................................................... 35 Wear testing .................................................................................................................................................. 35 Wear mechanisms ......................................................................................................................................... 36 4.2 WHEEL -RAIL PROFILE CHANGE ...................................................................................................................... 38 Wheel wear ................................................................................................................................................... 38 Rail wear ....................................................................................................................................................... 40 Wheel and rail profile measurements ........................................................................................................... 41 4.3 WHEEL -RAIL CONTACT ENVIRONMENT AND LUBRICATION ............................................................................ 41 5 WHEEL WEAR PREDICTION TOOLS ................................................................................................. 43 5.1 PREVIOUS WORK ON WHEEL WEAR PREDICTION ............................................................................................ 43 Chudzikiewicz .............................................................................................................................................. 43 Fries and Davila ...........................................................................................................................................