RICERCA ITALIANA     

Advanced railway systems for freight transportation. Capacity, reliability, technologies, theoretical analysis and testing.

Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"

Abstract

The proposed research project aims to develop design methods for high-reliability and high-capacity freight wagon bogies. The aims of the research are aligned with the recent orientations of the European Union regarding freight transport system reorganisation and in turn lead mainly to an improvement of present situations in which passenger and freight traffic coexist on common railway lines by increasing freight train speed and thus line capacity.
The theme will be developed extensively from a technical point of view. The main areas involved will be bogie life-cycle (component and rolling surface fatigue), vehicle dynamics (train dynamics, effects of track irregularities and of braking, bogie layout, advanced measurement systems), compatibility with environment and infrastructure (noise emission, rail damage).
The four Research Units involved will share their experiences in the abovementioned sectors and, using both theoretical and experimental tools, will produce a comprehensive collection of design criteria along with correlated examples, useful both to the academic and to the industrial world to be able to construct new advanced freight wagons.

Principal Investigator

Giuseppe Romolo CORAZZA Universita' degli Studi di ROMA

Research Objectives

The proposed research project aims to develop design methods for high-reliability and high-capacity freight wagon bogies.
The design methods shall deal with several areas in which the Research Units (RU) involved have already developed significant experience. The optimal solutions sought for by the units, single-handedly or in cooperation with the others, shall concern the partial goals in which the main goal can be subdivided. These are as follows:

1. bogie and track life-cycle
1a fatigue life of axles and complete wheelsets
1b fatigue life of wheel treads
1c fatigue life of bogie frame and of subcomponents
1d fatigue life of rails

2. vehicle dynamics
2a wheel/rail interaction parameter measurement systems
2b bogie layout
2c wheel profiles
2d effects of real track geometry
2e innovative anti-yaw dampers
2f effects of braking on vehicle dynamics
2g dynamics of the complete train

3. sound emission of bogies

Optimal solutions are considered those which allow the bogie and the train to attain the best possibile compromise regarding:
§ reliability
§ availability
§ maintainability
§ safety
§ compatibility with the infrastructure
§ compatibility with the environment
§ costs

First Results

At the end of the first phase the following results are expected:
· Indications on the type of steel suitable for axles and wheels shall be available, along with indications on the possibility of designing the “milion-mile axle” and on the value of design maximum stress for long component life
· Data for fatigue and dynamic tests shall be available (mainly load spectra)
· The force, gauge and profile measurement systems will have reached a level allowing the execution of field tests, so as to produce specific load spectra
· The full-scale test rig shall be suitable for the calibration of enhanced measuring wheelsets
· The roller rig shall be ready for phase 2.8 (measurement campaign)
· The design specifications for axles will be available to RU n. 1 (phase 2.2) and those for the bogie concepts to RU n. 3 for the similarity tests (phase 2.8)The second phase will make available a series of methods and bodies of results necessary for phase 3, in which such data will be collected and organised in order to create a comprehensive collection.The partial results of phase 3 coincide with the final results as defined in the aims of the research project.

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

Studies in the field of railway dynamics for the design of reliable bogies is an open question for high capacity freight transportation.
Environmental and logistic problems arising from freight transportation, today performed for over 90% on road, are well known. For many years the EU has been underlining the need to develop programs in order to promote alternative solutions for freight transportation.
Particularly, the VI European Frame Programme (see: "Focusing and integrating community research, Priority thematic areas of research, 1.1.6. Sustainable development, global change and ecosystems, ii) Sustainable surface transport"), as well as the V European Frame Programme (see Key Action "Sustainable Mobility and Intermodality" of the Thematic Program "Competitive and Sustainable Growth") stress the necessity to transfer a considerable part of freight transport presently carried out on ordinary roads to railways.
On the other hand it is also known that railway freight transportation cannot grow due to infrastructural constraint. In fact the same railway infrastructures are used for both passengers and freight transportation.
It must be pointed out that, while representing on one hand the logical development of activities carried out within COFIN2000, on the other hand the research project is characterised by original aspects, particularly those central research themes aiming at the definition of a high-speed freight train bogie, integrated in a >>>