Optimization of Bolted Rail Joint using FEM of National Railway Network of Ethiopia
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Date
2017-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Proper functioning of bolted joint is essential for the safe operation of the railway continuity
of the rail and for breaking system. The conventional bolted joint resembles structure butt
joint consisting of two pieces of rails connected together through two joints bars on either side
of their web .The main objective of this study is analyzing and optimize the stresses on bolted
joint due to the vertical, lateral and longitudinal force to predict and minimize stress caused.
This studies use the hertz contact theory to perform the analysis for three geometric of bolt.
The three dimensional model has been developed on modeling package of CATIAV5R16. In
CATIAV5R16, different components of wheel/rail assembly i.e. wheel, rail, joint, bars, nuts,
bolts are created separately then all components are assembled, and create a complete model
of wheel/rail assembly. Assembly model has created in assemble workbench of CATIA after
individual component of joint had created on part work bench. After the assembly is
accomplished on CATIA, it was imported in to the ANSYSR16 to analyze the stress caused
by vertical, lateral load and longitudinal load. ANSYS solves governing differential equations
by breaking the problem into small elements. The wheel structure discretized using
CONTA174 element. CONTA 170 three dimensional elements are used to discretize rail.
During the analysis of wheel/rail contact in ANSYS software, the parameters have been used
axle load, angular velocity and gravitational acceleration. From ANSYS software simulation
static and dynamic result when M32 geometric, the rail joint highly exposed to the equivalent,
normal, shear stresses than the rest. For this reason, the service life of the rail joint of M32 is
small as compared to the remaining rail joint location. When M34 bolt geometric; the stress
on the rail joint is small in comparison to M30 and M32 bolt geometric. So M34 bolt
geometric will be better to use by national railway than M32 bolt geometric.
Description
Keywords
Stress, bolted Joint, Modeling, Finite Element Method