MEC8024 Coursework - Railway Bogie Simulation
MEC8024 Coursework - Railway Bogie Simulation
MEC8024 Coursework - Railway Bogie Simulation
Coursework – Railway Bogie Simulation
VehicleSimulator is a Matlab program that simulates a train bogie moving down a railway
track. The track is straight but not very good quality, and the vehicle bounces around a lot –
there’s a high risk of derailment.
There are various parameters that can be set at the start of the script:
kwheel The stiffness of the (longitudinal) springs between the bogie and each wheel.
kshaft The stiffness of the (transverse) springs between the bogie and each wheelset.
kbrace The stiffness of the cross-bracing springs between opposite-corner wheels.
Iy, Iz Moments of inertia of wheelset and bogie about y- and z-axes respectively.
mass Masses of the wheelset and the bogie.
D0 Neutral diameter of the wheels (typically 0.7 – 0.9).
c Conicity of the wheels (typically 0.1 – 0.2).
wheelbase Separation between front and back wheelsets.
axle load The load on each wheelset, normal to the track.
Also, a special wheel profile can be defined as a function using the ‘profile’ parameter.
The simulation uses ode23 to solve the dynamical system. The duration and time-step (which
determines the resolution of the results, not the actual solution) can be set, and the power
delivered to the wheelsets can be specified either as a function or a constant. If the system
becomes unstable, it will crash out, saying either ‘Derailed!’ if the transverse displacement is
too large, or ‘Unstable!’ if the wheelset orientations are too large.
On successful completion, the results are saved to an Excel spreadsheet.
Tasks
Write a short report – no more than six pages – in which you should:
1. Develop a way to characterise and quantify the stability of the bogie, both considering
the safety of the vehicle and the comfort of the passengers.
2. Show how changing the parameters of the simulation affects the stability of the bogie.
3. Find or estimate appropriate values for the wheelbase, masses and moments of inertia
(the default values are just guesses), justifying your choices, and determine suitable
spring stiffness values that maximise stability.
28/03/19 13:07 H:\Downloads\Matlab...\VehicleSimulator.m 1 of 2
% ================================================
% **** Set up the track and adjust parameters ****
% ================================================
T = Track ();
% Notes:
% @1.7m, k = {5E6,1E6,1E7}
% diameter 0.70 .. 1.00, c = 0.1 .. 0.2 are OK (for 60s)
% @2.3m, k = {5E6,1E6,1E7}
% diameter 0.80 .. 1.00, c = 0.1 (conical only) are OK (for 60s)
T.draw (-5, 85); % Plot the track - doesn't affect solution, only the animation
% =========================
% **** Add the vehicle ****
% =========================
B = Bogie (T);
B.draw_vehicle ();
simulation_complete = false;
try
% solve the differential equations
dt = 0.5; % time step for animation & results matrix
tf = 60; % duraction of simulation
[T, S] = ode23 (dsdt, [0:dt:tf], s0);
% T and S are the time vector and corresponding results matrix
% ========================================
% **** Time to analyse the results... ****
% ========================================
if (simulation_complete)
fprintf ('Final position = %.3f m\n', B.origin(1));
fprintf ('Final velocity = %.3f m/s\n', B.vx);