A Longitudinal Force Model for Multibody Railroad Vehicle System Applications
In this paper, a model is developed to analyze the longitudinal forces of interaction between the vehicles within a train consist. The track geometry is described in a preprocessor in terms of an arc length parameter. A single degree of freedom vehicle model is developed, in which the nonlinear equation of motion of the vehicle is expressed in terms of the track arc length using a velocity transformation. The velocity transformation matrix is obtained by expressing the Cartesian and angular velocities in terms of the time derivative of the arc length. Models are developed for representing; braking forces from a typical air brake system, coupler reactions from draft gear or end-of-car cushioning devices, and the rolling resistance acting on each vehicle. An example of a 10-car train is used to demonstrate the use of the formulations presented in this paper. Different simulation scenarios, including varying track configurations and brake failure, are presented.