<p>Centre Buffer Coupling mechanisms are commonly used for inter-connection of freight vehicles as well as passenger coaches in India. This mechanism requires small slack (clearance) to facilitate linking of two couplers. Although this clearance in coach couplers is significantly small, substantial jerks are experienced along longitudinal direction. This study investigates the effect of coupler clearance on longitudinal dynamics of rail vehicles.&nbsp; Analysis is carried out on a harmonically excited, representative single degree of freedom. Simulated results revealed that the presence of coupler clearance results in stick-slip and impact events between two couplers and affect the in-train longitudinal forces. These events cause the steep variation in acceleration; resulting in significant magnitude jerks. Results have been compared for various excitations. It has been found that under lower longitudinal excitation frequencies couplers respond close to quasi-static regime and stick-slip transitions dominate the jerk variation. It also limits the extent of impact between couplers. Higher longitudinal excitation frequencies lead to jerks being dominated by impact. Jerk magnitudes are found to be considerably higher for higher excitation frequencies than that of lower excitation frequencies.&nbsp;This study highlights the importance of consideration of coupler features and recommends longitudinal jerk evaluation investigations to be in line with RTRI methodology of considering maximum absolute jerks.</p>

Influence of Coupler Features in Longitudinal Ride Comfort Evaluation of Railway Vehicles Equipped With Centre Buffer Couplers

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/JRC/JRC2021/volume/84775

2021 Joint Rail Conference (JRC2021)

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