Dynamic performance of vehicle in high-speed freight EMU equipped with four double-axle bogies

Size and weight limitations mean that ordinary railway vehicles with two double-axle bogies cannot deliver some extremely heavy cargo and products. Thus, a newly designed high-speed freight electric multiple unit (EMU) equipped with two bogie groups each with two double-axle bogies connected by a transition frame is an alternative means of transporting heavy products because of its greater load capacity. However, because it is still in the design stage, its dynamic performance is yet to be researched, something that is urgently required because of the more-complicated structure and more-intensive wheel-rail interactions than those of traditional high-speed railway vehicles Therefore, to reveal the dynamic performance, this study establishes a three-dimensional dynamic model of a trailer vehicle in a high-speed freight EMU equipped with four double-axle bogies based on the classical theory of vehicle-track coupled dynamics. In this dynamic model, the vertical, horizontal, rolling, pitching, and yaw motions of the major components excited by random irregularities in the track geometry are considered fully. The results indicate that the derailment coefficient and stability index of this vehicle are both at excellent levels for the simulated conditions. The wheel unloading ratio appears to be larger but still within the safety range when the vehicle runs in a straight line, but it is close to or can even exceed the limit value when the vehicle runs at 400 km/h on a specified curved line.