Rail Case Studies

Copyright © 2009 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.

Accelerating Design and Analysis of High Speed Railcars

at Changchun Railway Vehicles

• Challenge

• Development of high-speed trains requires more intensive

use of CAE

• Six weeks to build CAE models with existing solution

• Solution

• HyperMesh for building railcar models for ANSYS simulations

• OptiStruct to optimize performance

• Benefits

• Reduction of modeling time by 50% (from six to three weeks)

• Better mesh quality improved result accuracy

• Better design performance as a result of integrated optimization

“It’s not just that we can build up a HyperMesh model more quickly, of all the CAE software

that I’ve used or seen, HyperMesh delivers the finest model quality.”

Dr. Xuedong Yan, Chief Information Officer, Changchun Railway Vehicle Company, China


Case Study Reducing Development Time at STADLER

“We decided to use HyperWorks because it exactly

matches our request for an engineering framework

and also included optimization software.” Dr. Alois Starlinger

Head of Certification, STADLER, Switzerland

Challenge

• Need more efficient simulation process to reduce

development time

• Glacier Express: need to reduce weight due to

operation conditions in the mountains

Solution

• HyperWorks Simulation Framework to reduce

modeling time for simulations

• Optimization to reduce structural weight

Results

• 20% reduction in simulation time

• 15% less material as a result of simulation in the

design process


Energy Absorber System Design

Challenge

• Development of energy absorber system to meet new

European Safety Requirements

• New concept for high-speed trains

Solution

• RADIOSS for crash simulation

• Calibration of test-simulation results

• Hyperstudy - Design variations to optimize

performance

• Simulation of various impact scenarios

• AGV vs. AGV

• AGV vs. freight wagon

• AGV vs deformable obstacle

Results

• AGV compliant with new regulations

• Entire energy absorption in front train section

Blue:RADIOSS

Red: Test

Force vs. time during impact


Contacts between the wheels and the rails

determined using the geometry of the wheels

and not the mesh of it.

XTER Railcar - Crash Analysis

Simulation using RADIOSS

Frontal crash absorber


Challenge • Electric railway crossing parachutist landing area • Layout of overhead electric wire protection system

to minimize parachutist injury at impact • Initial configuration: protective metallic net with

four horizontal cables

Solution • RADIOSS for explicit simulation with Hybrid III

dummy model • Goal: minimize HIC value and forces on various

parts of the body • Simulation of 14 impact scenarios (various impact

positions and zones along the protection device)

Results • Design modified by adding three additional cables • Reduction of parachutist injury risk

Reducing Parachutist Injury Risk

“By using simulation to assess the stiffness and improve the design of the protection device,

we could prove that numerical dummies can be successfully used in different fields” Didier Lévèque, Safety Manager

SNCF, France


Process Automation – Report Generation


Improve Ride/Noise of Locomotive Cab

using System Engineering Approach

Challenge

• Reduce noise levels in cab while

improving ride characteristics

Solution

• Characterize locomotive sub-systems

from track to cab using finite element

simulation

• Propose and evaluate strategies for

ride/noise

Results

• Best strategy improves ride in cab by

factor of 10 while reducing noise

• Novel solution for locomotive developed

for implementation


High Speed Rail AcuSolve Product Suite

Challenge: Aerodynamics of passing trains

creates noise and forces that can affect

mechanical performance and passenger comfort

(e.g. your seat can rotate or yaw as you pass

another bullet train in the opposite direction

Solution:

•AcuSolve’s accuracy on a transient sliding mesh

simulation allowed accurate prediction of both

phenomena

Business Impact:

•Accurate simulation reduces expensive

experimental testing and validations of proposed

high speed train design and modifications to

external structures (e.g. pantographs

AcuSolve’s uniqie Finite Element Based formulation (GLS) enables accuracy such that the transient

forces on the high speed rail car can be calculated accurately along with the noise created by structures

on train body

Rail Case Studies

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