Random vibration analysis for coupled vehicle-track systems with uncertain parameters

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a new random vibration-based assessment method for coupled vehicle-track systems with uncertain parameters when subjected to random track irregularity.

Design/methodology/approach

The uncertain parameters of vehicle are described as bounded random variables. The track is regarded as an infinite periodic structure, and the dynamic equations of the coupled vehicle-track system, under mixed physical coordinates and symplectic dual coordinates, are established through wheel-rail coupling relationships. The random track irregularities at the wheel-rail contact points are converted to a series of deterministic harmonic excitations with phase lag by using the pseudo excitation method. Based on the polynomial chaos expansion of the pseudo response, a chaos expanded pseudo equation is derived, leading to the combined hybrid pseudo excitation method - polynomial chaos expansion method

Findings

The impact of uncertainty propagation on the random vibration analysis is assessed efficiently. According to GB5599-85, the reliability analysis for the stability index is implemented, which can grade the comfort level by the probability. Comparing to the deterministic analysis, it turns out that neglect of the parameter uncertainty will lead to potentially risky analysis results.

Originality/value

The proposed method is compared with Monte Carlo simulations, achieving good agreement. It is an effective means for random vibration analysis of uncertain coupled vehicle-track systems and has good engineering practicality

Citation

Xiang, P., Zhao, Y., Lin, J., Kennedy, D. and Williams, F.W. (2016), "Random vibration analysis for coupled vehicle-track systems with uncertain parameters", Engineering Computations, Vol. 33 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-01-2015-0009