Narrow Results

This work presents the investigation and improvement on curve negotiation performance of suspended monorail vehicle considering a flexible guideway. First, a spatial train–guideway interaction model of suspended monorail system (SMS) is established based on the secondary development of ANSYS software. Then, the dynamic analysis of the train over the flexible curved guideway is conducted, and the curve negotiation performance of the vehicle and the guideway vibration feature are revealed. Subsequently, several crucial design parameters that significantly influence the curve negotiation performance of the vehicle are found, and their influences on the train–guideway dynamic responses are systematically investigated. Finally, by comprehensively considering the dynamic indexes of the vehicle–guideway system, the optimal ranges of these crucial design parameters are obtained. Results show that decreasing the radial stiffness of guiding tyre can effectively reduce the lateral vibration levels of vehicle and guideway, but it would increase the lateral displacements of the bogie and hanging beam; and the radial stiffness is finally suggested to be around 1kN/mm by comprehensively considering all dynamic indexes. Increasing the initial compression displacement of guiding tyre can well limit the lateral displacements of the bogie and the hanging beam, thus enhancing the train running safety; however, it would intensify the vehicle-guideway lateral vibration level; especially, the optimal initial compression displacement of guiding tyre is related to its radial stiffness characteristics. To ensure a good curve negotiation performance of vehicle and guideway vibration level, the stiffness of the anti-roll torsion bar and the initial gradient angle of the installed trapezoid four-link suspended device are suggested to be 1.0MNm/rad and 65–$70^{\circ }$, respectively.

Suspended monorail transportation (SMT) plays an important role in alleviating the urban traffic pressure, and its vehicle–bridge dynamic features are significantly different from those of the traditional railway. To grasp the coupled vibration features of suspended monorail train–bridge system (SMTBS), this paper presents a comprehensive experimental investigation on the vehicle–bridge vibrational responses under different operating conditions. First, based on the Chengdu SMT test line in China, a full-scale field measurement of the coupled vibration responses of the SMTBS is elaborately conducted under constant speed conditions. Then, the vibrational responses of the SMTBS are analyzed in the time and frequency domains to reveal its coupled vibration features and vibration transmission characteristics. Further, considering an extreme train operating condition, the vibrational responses of the SMTBS are tested and analyzed under train emergency braking; and the vibration features of the vehicle and bridge are examined for emergency braking, along with several key indexes evaluated for the train braking performance. Results show that the vibrational accelerations transmitted from the frame to the center pin and then to the carbody will be significantly decreased in turn, and the vibrational dominant frequencies of the bogie, center pin, and carbody mainly fall with 0–100Hz, 0–50Hz, and 0–20Hz, respectively. Under moving train loads, the box beam produces plentiful high-frequency vibrations and the vibrations transmitted from the driving track to the top plate are drastically reduced. The train braking significantly intensifies the car-body longitudinal vibration; however, it has small influences on the car-body vertical and lateral vibrations.