Numerical Simulation of Railway Vehicle Impacts

In order to study the effect of vehicle impacts on vehicle safety, a modified draft gear dynamic model was built in Simulink based on theory of draft gear, and a full degree-of-freedom (DOF) model of C80 freight car and K6 bogie were built in UM based on the vehicle system dynamics and a coupler model. The vehicle impact was co-simulated by combination of above models using Simulink and UM. The results indicate that the problem of energy dissipation on the transition curve can be solved and the characteristic of draft gear can be simulated by the correction model; the impact between two groups of vehicles is more harmful than that between a vehicle and a group of vehicles; low-amplitude and high-frequency coupler force is generated by the mass of the coupler and follower plate; the coupler force of the full-DOF impact model is 21.7% less than that of singe-DOF model due to the suspension; a coupling relationship between longitudinal, lateral, and vertical directions can be found in the vehicle impact, so the rail-wheel vertical force increases with an increase in the impact mass and the height of center of gravity, and the rail-wheel lateral force increases with an increase in the longitudinal force or a decrease in curve radius.