ANALYSIS OF RAILWAY V E H I C L E SYSTEM DYNAMICS WITH THE M U L T I B O D Y P R O G R A M M E D Y N A

W. Kortum
DLR German Aerospace Research Establishment, Institute for Flight Systems Dynamics, D-8031 Oberpfaffenhofen

Abstract

The general purpose program MEDYNA is described with respect to its capabilities for analyzing the dynamics of railway systems. The modeling capabilities, the computational methods, and software aspects are addressed. Special emphasis is placed on MEDYNA's modeling assumptions for the wheel-rail contact mechanics and the railway operational modes such as critical speeds, dynamic curving, and vehicle-guidewayinteraction. The use of MEDYNA for typical problems associated with the development of the ICE train is demonstrated. INTRODUCTION Simulation and computer-aided analysis of complex mechanical systems has become a task of increasing importance in the development of advanced high speed ground transportation systems (HSGT). Software tools are required combining modeling support, eficient generation of the equations of motion as well as reliable numerical solution and system analysis techniques. MEDYNA is an integrated approach - based on the method of multibody systems (MBS) - for simulating the dynamics of a large variety of mechanical systems, [1,2]. The development of MEDYNA was primarily initiated in order to assist the German high-speed railway research and development (ICE). Therefore MEDYNA has been equipped with special features for modeling, analyzing and simulating rail-guided vehicles as railroad cars or trains and magnetically levitated vehicles.

of flexible bodies. The motions of the global reference frames (one for a single car, several for trains) are guideway oriented functions for stationary or dynamic curving, Fig. 1. Gravitational and gyroscopic effects of the individual bodies can be taken into account. Bodies can be kinematically connected in tree or closed loop configuration. Holonomic constraints between the bodies are easily specified by describing the free, the kinematically excited, and the locked modes across the interconnection. A library of the most important interconnection elements is available; it comprises linear, nonlinear, static, dynamic, passive and

Fig. 1: Global Reference Frame for General Guideway Profiles active force relations, Fig. 2. Another essential feature is the availability of specific models describing the primary suspension mechanics for wheel-rail vehicles.

For the models i ~ smentioned above, MEDYNA establishes the dynamic equations, together with the holonodc constraints automatically in the form

M O D E L I N G C A P A B I L I T I E S OF M E D Y N A G e n e r a l Modeling Aspects MEDYNA handles small rigid body motions relative to large motion of global reference frames and small elastic deformations
57

Mi + Di + Iip + Czf,, =

p , L>U,t)

(1)

cz'1!

= 4

where M is the mass matrix, D and K are the damping and stiffness matrices of linear interaction force laws and gyroscopic terms. Additionally, K also contains the effects of the preloads resulting

from nominal constraints or applied forces. C, is the constraint m,atrix, the total position vector of the unconstrained system, f z d the dynamic part of the constraint forces and 2 are the kinematic excitations in the constraints. The vector g contains the generalized forces of nonlinear interaction laws, moving reference frames, effects of system inputs as external forces and kinematic excitations (vector U) and dynamic interactions laws (state vector
E).

Torfiond Damper

SpringlDJmpr in Sericr (linear)

L. d

The equations of motion are reduced by incorporating the constraint equations and transformed to the minimal, i.e. statespace form. A special algorithm takes care to find out the independent constraint relations and appropriate generalized coordinates - also in case of closed loops, [3]. y, Finally, p is expressed in terms of y and z as

2 = J,g

+ Jzz

(2)

where J,, J, are constant Jacobian-matrices of the free and locked modes of the MBS. The resulting state space equations of the MBS are obtained in the following format

Nonlinrir Whecl-Rail Elenienl

Profile Daw.
Mr,crid conrunu

where a: is the state-vector and A, B are the linear system and input matrices, respectively; in h(g,u,t ) all nonlinear and timedependent terms resulting from nonlinear interaction forces, timedependent inputs, moving reference frames and nonlinear substructures are summarized. Equation (3) describes the small body motion of the MBS relative to the moving reference frame under the assumption that the MBS starts from the static equilibrium. MEDYNA can be applied successfully to various types of ground vehicles. Most readily available models, however, have been established for wheel-rail systems; these will be described in the following section. Modeling Wheel-Rail S y s t e m s in MEDYNA C o n t a c t Mechanics. The dynamic behaviour of a wheelrail vehicle is influenced by two nonlinear effects resulting from the wheel rail contact geometry and from the contact forces between wheel and rail, [4]. The simulation program MEDYNA contains a geometry routine which precomputes the so-called geometry functions and other related functions occurring in the equations of motion and the contact point locations as functions of the lateral displacement and the yaw angle of the wheelset on rails. For the determination of the contact forces Kalker's nonlinear theory is used . Kalker's very efficient routine FASTSIM for the calculation of the creep forces is used within the integration process. All geometrical quantities needed for the simulation are stored and can be determined by linear interpolation. In addition computer time is saved by combining the nonlinear program FASTSIM with Kalker's linear theory valid for small creepages; for details see [5]. T h e Wheel-Rail S u b s t r u c t u r e . As already mentioned MEDYNA contains a linear multibody formalism that automatically generates the equations of motion. In order to combine a
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Fig. 2: Library of Interconnection Elements in MEDYNA

linear formalism with the nonlinearities of the wheel-rail contact, a substructure method is used which couples the MBS with the "substructures" wheelset-track elements comprising the nonlinear wheel-rail mechanics, [6]. The complete substructure consisting of a rigid wheelset with torsional elasticity of the wheelset shaft and a rigid-track element is shown in Fig. 3. The wheelset can be described by the six rigid body coordinates and one additional coordinate for the relative rotation between left and right wheel. The rigid-track element is allowed to perform a vertical and a lateral displacement and a rotation about the rail element center line. So also track irregularities can be taken into account. This leads to the following structure of the dynamic equations of motion of the substructure wheelset-rail element,

where 2 denotes the generalized speeds, see [6]. The generalized are forces f,,, composed of coupling forces, weight forces, centrifu-

[() gal and gyroscopic forces, f , & contain the creep forces for right and left wheel being dependent on the constraint forces (normal loads). The mass matrix M is diagonal and constant. The elements of the matrices M,, Mz and M3 are functions of the lateral deflection y and the yaw rotation $ of the wheelset. This equation can be treated as a differential-algebraic equation or as it is done in MEDYNA by substituting the constraint forces & from the second equation into the first differential equation. This requires a solution of a nonlinear set of equations in every time step which is performed by a Newton method.

Actual Configuration

The interaction with the vehicle consists of a sequence of concentrated time-varying forces moving at constant speed. The set of three partial differential equations describing the vertical, lateral, and torsional deflections of a beam as a function of the position, the moving interaction forces, and the time can be solved for the boundary conditions of hinged ends. For instance, the vertical deflection w(t) at the position of the moving force (z = V . t ) results from
00

w(t) = C s i n j w t . S ( j , t )
j=t

U:

exciting frequency

(5)

where the function S ( j , t ) is the solution of the Duhamel integral, representing the excitation of the moving forces on each mode j of vibration. The Duhamel integral is solved by discretizing the timevarying forces. This process leads to recursive formulas. In the case of a series of moving forces the contribution of each force in these recursive formulas is weighted by using precomputed arrays. COMPUTATIONAL METHODS IMPLEMENTED I N MEDYNA Special attention has been paid to the computational methods and numerical algorithms implemented in MEDYNA, [10,11]. S t a t i c Analvsis It is pointed out that static analysis is required for correct linearization of the system, since the nominal loads (preloads) of the interconnections are needed in the MEDYNA formalism, [2]. For a given MBS configuration and given nominal applied external forces, the nominal constraint forces and the nominal interaction forces at all interconnections can be computed. On the other hand, if the nominal interaction forces are specified but the equilibrium conditions are violated, the true equilibrium can be computed with the help of an incremental continuation method based on Newton-Raphson iterations. In this context large body motions are allowed. L i n e a r System Analysis Since the state-equations are established, in case of fully linear models (i.e. linear coupling elements), stability of the system can be concluded from the eigenvalues using the code HQR from EISPACK. In addition, all further linear analysis is based primarily on the eigenvalues and eigenvectors. As inputs to the MBS time-dependent external forces at certain body locations or timeor position-dependent excitations (e.g. road irregularities) at interconnections can be defined. Their components and possibly their time-derivatives constitute the input vector U. As output quantities, components of the state-vector, accelerations at specified vehicle locations or interaction forces can be chosen. MEDYNA establishes the linear input-output equations in the form

l . ,. ".ll

1r.m.

Nominal Configuration

Fig. 3: The Wheelset-Track Element

Wheel-Rail Interconnection Elements. In MEDYNA two further wheel-rail elements exist which are implemented in the form of interconnections, see Fig. 2. The advantage of these wheel-rail interconnection elements is, that the elastic modeling of the wheelset shaft and the rails can be taken into account 171. The first element is a quasistatic element with nonlinear profiles which has been implemented for steady state curving. The second element is a quasilinear element which allows the use of all the methods of MEDYNA concerning linear analysis of rail vehicles; here the wheel-rail geometry is linearized [8]. Vehicle-Guideway Interaction Vehicles travelling over flexible guideways, such as bridges or elevated structures, cause dynamical interactions between the flexible structure and the vehicles. Thus, the vehicle dynamics is inherently coupled with the guideway dynamics through the primary suspensions of the vehicle. Under certain assumptions, which will be Specified subsequently, the interactions can be computed efficiently using the concept of the "guideway operator", [9]. The guideway-operator is a numerical procedure for handling the elastic guideway part within a digital simulation of vehicleguideway interaction effectively, when the following modeling assumptions for the guideway can be made: The guideway consists of a series of identical simply supported Bernoulli-beams. Cross section and mass per unit length of the beam are constant. The beams are thin-walled and have a cross section with two axes of symmetry.
59

The input vector for a vehicle with several axles can be obtained from the actual disturbance inputs with the aid of time-delays; they can be given as deterministic signals (e.g. sine waves) or as power-spectral densities (PSD). Frequency domain analysis of equation (6) starts from numerical computation of the transfer matrix
G ( j w ) = C(jwE - A)-B

+D

(7)

and yields frequency responses (Bodeplots) or output spectral densities in case of stochastic inputs. From the output densities ridecomfort measures are computed by integration over frequency. As an alternative, MEDYNA also allows the stochastic evaluation by covariance analysis. In this case the stochastic input process is represented by the output of a linear dynamic filter with white noise as input. Here a series of Ljapunov matrix equations have to be solved numerically yielding the desired covariance matrix, the elements of which can be used to obtain ride-comfort measures. Nonlinear Simulation via Time-Integration The nonlinear state equations (3) are solved with numerical integration methods in the time domain. Numerical integrainclude a Runge-Kuttation methods available in MEDYNA, [ll], Bettis code with error control and variable stepsize, and two multistep codes. Multistep codes are best suited for problems with dense output or right-hand-side functions which are expensive to evaluate. MEDYNA includes a multistep code for nonstiff problems, which is based on variable order Adams-Bashforth-Moulton formulas. Another code, LSODA, is adaptive for systems with varying stiffness properties; it automatically switches to ADAMSformulas and fast iteration schemes designed for nonstiff problems, and uses BDF-formulas (Gears method) together with the more expensive Newton-iteration only when required by stability demands in the case of stiff mechanical systems. This code also has variable stepsizes and variable order, it drops to a simple backward Euler formula if the problem is not sufficiently smooth. S I M U L A T I O N RESULTS In this section three examples demonstrating the possibilities of wheel-rail system simulation with MEDYNA will be discussed. The simulations are performed to investigate tangent track and curving performance. The first section deals with the simulation of a modern four-axle high speed rail vehicle, the passenger car of the German ICE-train (Intercity-Experimental). The second example describes the dynamic behaviour of the ICE-train consisting of two locomotives and a passenger car between them. And finally, the third application shows low speed shunting of a freight train. In all examples the wheel/rail profile combination UIC-ORE SlOO2/UIC 60 is used.

Fig. 4: Limit-Cycle Amplitudes as a Function of the Vehicle Velocity a t the Front Wheelset of the ICE Passenger Car

ticity of the otherwise rigid wheelset shaft is taken into account. In order to simulate the so-called coupling frame bogie of Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Niirnberg (MAN) the wheelsets of each bogie are coupled by springs with a shear and a bending stiffness. The interconnections between the bodies are modeled as linear springs with linear dampers in parallel; the yaw suspensions between the bogies and the car body are modeled as linear springs and dampers in series. The tangent track behaviour has been studied extensively in [12]. Fig. 4 indicates the limit-cycle behaviour over a wide range of the vehicle speed V. Very small amplitudes of the wheelset lateral displacement will be expected up to V = 120m/s which is beyond the maximum travel speed of the ICE. This behaviour is intended by the designers. The behaviour on a disturbed tangent track is demonstrated in Fig. 5 . The rail irregularities as a function of the track length were taken from a realistic German track section between Augsburg and Donauworth and were applied in the simulation in form of vertical, lateral, and cross level deflections of the track. In the simulation the irregularities were introduced on the track after the vehicle had stabilized on a limit-cycle, shown in Fig. 5 . At speeds up to 100m/s the limit-cycle amplitude vanishes after introducing the rail irregularities, at higher speeds ( V = 140m/s) the limitcycle amplitude is hardly influenced by these disturbances.

ICE Locomotive
A principal model of the locomotive is shown in Fig. 6. Here the most important interconnections are shown in order to understand the fundamental model. The driving motors, one for each wheelset, are coupled with the locomotive body and also with the bogie frame through an elastic support. Additionally the motor masses are laterally coupled with the locomotive body. Both the primary and secondary longitudinal and lateral suspensions are modeled with linear springs. In [9] the dynamic behaviour of the ICE locomotive crossing an elastic 3-span-bridge is investigated. For the simulation of the locomotive crossing a bridge the wheelset-track element is connected to the elastic guideway by spring-damper elements, see [13]. The vehicle velocity is 180limlh.
60

ICE Passenger Car

The model of the passenger car is taken as one rigid body representing the car body and two rigid bodies representing the bogies. Every bogie has two wheelsets, where the torsional elas-

ICE-I.OC
I

ON R-SPAN-ORIDGE/lRACK-IRR./V=58niS
I 1-IRR 1
X

220

AT +YIIEELS. YllEELS.

A T YllEELS. A I YIIECLS.

I 1-IRR 1

10

2
d

a
00

2-10
YI W 0 , - 2 0

M70p
130
I I I I I

I
mm
I,

(0-

I20 4
I I I I

50

188

150

200

250

DISTANCE ALONG IRACK

ICE-LOC UN 3-SlAN-URIUGE/

tn)

IRACK-IRK .IV=5Utl/S

v)

, .
2

1 11

A 1 D R I V E R FLOOR U l ll l ll lO U l T R A C K - I R R . AT DRIVER FlUllK W IKACK-IHH.

=
00

-3 0

-?L2
50
I00
150

200

250

DISTANCE ALONG TRACK ( f l ) 02

04 06

08

10

12

Travelled Distance

(m)

*E

1 4

a) Total Bridge Normal Force

a ) Small Limit-Cycle Amplitudes (V = 100m/s)

b) Large Limit-Cycle Amplitudes (V = 140m/i)

Under Wheelset 1 and 4

b) Normal Acceleration at the Drivers Floor

Fig. 5 : Lateral Wheelset Response of the Passenger Car on Rail Irregularities

Fig. 7: Crossing of a 3-Span-Bridge by the ICE Locomotive on Ideal TrackLateral Displacemeiits of the Front Locomotive and with Track Irregularities

Fig. 8: The Complete Train Model

-__ Train ICE

Fig. 6: Principal Model of the ICE-Locomotive, (1 = Car Body, 2 = Ilogie, 3 = Propulsion Motor, 4 = Wheelset-Track Element) The cxcilation of the bridge in the vertical plane is mainly caused by the vehicle weight. The dynamic variation of the loads by the elastic deformation of the bridge is small, approximately *3%. Track irregularities in alignment and crosslevel are also included causing much higher load variations, see Fig. 7 a. But I,he effect of the track irregularities on the deformation of the bridge is very small. They mainly act on the vehicle as seen in the acceleration at the driver floor, as indicated in Fig. 7 b.
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The ICE-train under consideration consists of two locomotives with a passenger car in between. For the train model the elastic coupling between the cars is approximately modeled as a three-dimensional body with linear springs and dampers in parallel. In order to guarantee the validitiy of the linearization of the kinematical equations in curves, each car has its own trackoriented reference frame located below the car bodys centre of gravity as shown in Fig. 8. Demonstrating the capability of MEDYNA a dynamic curving simulation (radius of curve 5500m, superelevation 80mnz, track gauge 1435) is shown for the complete train model. A crosswind gust with a maximum force of 30kN is assumed to be acting

- Rear
-0-

Locomotive - 0 - - T # l : Wheelsel 3 -T K l ; Wtieelscl 1

-Front
I

Passenger Car Locomotive

8
0

-1.5

0.0

,:I' \

,
2.0

, ,
I /

.,. I .. .
/

,i *

,
8.0

,
*E
2

J
0.0
2.0 4.0

4.0

6.0

6.0

8.0

Trave!!ed Disiclnce

(m)

Travelled Distance
-*-Owl: -0W1: Wheelset 2 Wtieelsct 1

(n)

'E

Fig. 9: Lateral Displacements of the Train's Car Bodies During Curve Negotiation with Crosswind
I

1 .o

on the centre of gravity of each car body in the direction of the centrifugal forces with a time delay according to the specd of the train. Fig. 9 shows the lateral displacements of the three car bodies, whereas the lateral displacements of wheelset 1 and wheelset 3 of the front locomotive and those of wheelset 1 and wheelset 2 of the passenger car are represented in Fig. 10, see [13]. These simulations of curve negotiation with crosswind indicate the stability reserves of the ICE train model also during high speed curving.

E
VI 0

0.0

-1.0

(3

. -2.0
-30

I ,1

a!

0.0

CONCLUSIONS
This paper described the general purpose program MEDYNA with special emphasis to its applications in railway dynamic analysis. MEDYNA achieves its generality from being based on a general multibody system approach and its versatile and general wheel-rail interconnections and substructures. Further, the carefully selected and well-proven computational methods for linear and nonlinear models form an essential feature of this program. With these options railway cars and trains can be simulated under different operating conditions such as hunting on straight tracks, response under track disturbance, dynamic or quasi-static curving, as well as vehicles travelling over flexible guideways. These features have been demonstrated especially for case studies concerned with the German ICE. Even the simulation results here were intentionally restricted to railway systems, MEDYNA can be applied to other HSGT systems as well, see e. g. [14] for a discussion of application to MAGLEV vehicles. These simulation results show a definite progress in the potential of reducing dependency of HSGT analysis on both expensive and time consuming experiments.

2.0 4.0 GO Travelled Distance (m)

8.0

E '

a) Front Locomotive Wheelset 1 and 3

b) Passenger Car Wheelset 1 and 2

Fig. 10: Lateral Displacements of the Front Locomotive and of the Passenger Car During Curving with Crosswind

REFERENCES

0. Wallrapp and C. Fuhrer. MEDYNA - an interactive analysis and design program for geometrically linear and flexible multibody systems. In W.Schiehlen, editor, Multibody System Handbook, Springer, Heidelberg, to appear 1990.
0. Wallrapp. Entwicklung rechnergestutzter Methoden der Mehrkorperdynamik in d e r Fahrzeugtechnik (Dissertation).
Technical Report DLR-FB 89-17, Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fur Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), D-5000 Koln 90, 1989. C. Fuhrer and Oskar Wallrapp. A computer-oriented method for reducing linearized multibody equations by incorporating constraints. Comp. Meth. A p l . Mech. Eng., 46:169 - 175, 1984.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This paper is a slightly abbreviated and modified version of the paper [15] which has been prepared for COMPRAIL. The author likes to thank his group especially Dr. Wallrapp, Dr. Fuhrer, W. Schuster for their devotion to MEDYNA and those who have promoted the railway applications, especially W. Duffek, A. Jaschinski, Dr. Kik, Dr. Mauer and M. Jochim.
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W. Duffek and A. Jaschinski. Efficient implementation of

wheel-rail contact mechanics in dynamic curving. Cambridge,

UK, September 7-11, 1981. In A.H. Wickens, editor, Proc. 7th IAVSD-Symposium on the Dynamics of Vehicles on Roads and on Tracks, pages 441 - 454, Swets & Zeitlinger, B.V.
Lisse, 1982.

[5] A. Jaschinski. Anwendung der Kalkerschen Rollreibungstheorie zur dynamischen Simulation von Schienenfahrzeugen. Technical Report DFVLR-FB 87-07, Deutsche Forschungsund Versuchsanstalt fur Luft- und Raumfahrt (DFVCR), D5000 Koln 90, 1987. [6] W. Duffek. Ein Radsatz-Model1 f i r den dynamischen Bogenlauf von Schienenfahrzeugen - Theoretische Grundlagen. Technical Report DFVLR-IB 515-82-5, Deutsche Forschungsund Versuchsanstalt fur Luft- und Raumfahrt (DFVLR), D5000 Koln 90, 1982. [7] W. Kik and H. Steinborn. Wheel/rail connexion-element for use in a multi-body-algorithm. Cambridge, USA, MA, August 15-19, 1983. In I(. Hedrick, editor, Proc. 8th IAVSDSymposium on the Dynamics of Vehicles on Roads and on Tracks, pages 303 - 316, Swets & Zeitlinger, B.V. Lisse, 1984. [8] L. Mauer. Die modulare Beschreibung des Rad/SchieneKontakts im linearen Mehrkorperformalismus (Dissertation). Technical Report, Fachbereich 12 "Verkehrswesen", D83, Technische Universitat Berlin, 1988. [9] W. Duffek and W. Kortum. Dynamic load computation for flexible guideways under moving vehicles within a multibody approach. In Proc. 5th ICOSSAR, San Francisco, 1989. [lo] C. Fuhrer. Algebraic methods in vehicle dynamics simulation. Amalfi, Italy, May 5-10, 1986. In A.D. de Pater and H.B. Pacejka, editors, Proc. 3rd Seminar on Advanced Vehicle System Dynamics, pages 329 - 346, Swets & Zeitlinger, B.V. Lisse, 1987.

[ll] C. Fuhrer. Numerical integration methods in vehicle dynamics simulation. Amalfi, Italy, May 5-10, 1986. In A.D. de Pater and H.B. Ptcejka, editors, Proc. 3nl Seminar on Advanced Vehicle System Dynamics, pages 329 - 346, Swets & Zeitlinger, B.V. Lisse, 1987.

[la] W.

Duffek and M. Jochim. Pmgrummerweiterungen in MEDYNA und versuchsbegleitende Simulationen fur den ICE/V. Technical Report DFVLR-IB 515-89-16, Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fur Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, 1989.

[13] W. Duffek, A. Jaschinski and M. Jochim. Curving performance and tangent track behaviour of the german high speed train. Kingston, Canada, August 21-25, 1989. In R.J. Anderson, editor, Proc. 11th IAVSD-Symposium on the Dynamics of Vehicles on Roads and on Tracks, Swets & Zeitlinger, B.V. Lisse, to appear 1990. [14] I. Faye and W. Kortum and W. Schwartz. Modeling, control design, and performance Evaluation of high speed ground vehicle dynamics In E.J. Haug, editor, Mechanics and Structures and Machines, Marcel Dekker, Inc., 1989. [15] M. Jochim and W. Kortum and G. Kocher. Analysis of railway vehicle system dynamics with the multibody program MEDYNA 2nd Int. Conf. COMPRAIL 90,27-29 March 1990, Rome, Italy.

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