Structural Optimization of Railways Freight Wagon under Frame
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Date
2016-10
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Nowadays, the railway transport infrastructure in Ethiopia is one of the major issues in
relation to the development of the country. To strengthen this infrastructure, related
researches must be conducted at the beginning or during the construction of the sector.
This paper is mainly concerned on optimizing a railway flat wagon underframe structure
that has been subjected to a multi objective optimization to improve stiffness to weight
ratio.
In order to perform structural design optimization with a finite element method (FEM), a
3D model of the freight wagon underframe has been prepared by using a 3D modeling
software CATIA V5R20 software. The discreet FEM model has been imported in to
ANSYS 14.5 workbench, and optimization has been done on the frame structure based
on the initial parameters by using multi objective optimization techniques (ANSYS).
The result has been showed in the form of graphs which relates the input and output
parameters with the design variable. After graphical interpretation, structural analysis is
carried on by using ANSYS; just to check how far the input and output parameters are
improved at the highest loading conditions.
Observing the optimization results and static simulation effects of the existing model at
the highest loading conditions, it has been conclude that the center sill is a shell element
(note a solid element) and the optimum plate thickness for the center sill is 23mm. The
final product of the optimization process is a low weight underframe structure which
reduces 18.02% of the overall weight of the wagon and 9.01% to 12.614% of reduction in
power consumption. As a recommendation it is suggested that dynamic effects on the
underframe should be done for safety and is recommended as future work.
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Keywords
underframe, stiffness to weight ratio, multi objective design optimization, optimization algorisms