Study on the gear-rack meshing dynamic performance based on a multi-body dynamic model of rack rail vehicle

• Published in: Advances in mechanical engineering Vol. 16; no. 9
• Main Authors: Shen, Longjiang, Zhou, Zuobin, Wu, Xingwen, He, Shizhong, Yang, Ningrui, Luo, Yang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.09.2024; Sage Publications Ltd; SAGE Publishing
• Subjects: Dynamic models; Meshing; Mountainous areas; Mountains; Multibody systems; Stiffness; Track interaction models; Wheelsets; Rack rail vehicle; meshing dynamics; driving mode; vehicle system dynamics; meshing stiffness
• ISSN: 1687-8132; 1687-8140; 1687-8140
• DOI: 10.1177/16878132241286640

Rack rail vehicles show strong capability of mountain climbing and have become a popular transportation mode for mountain areas in recent years. Therefore, this paper investigated on the dynamic performance of rack rail vehicle through simulation of a multibody dynamic model. Firstly, a multibody dynamic model of rack rail vehicle considering both the wheel/rail interaction and the gear-rack meshing was developed in the SIMPACK software platform. A rack rail with a large slope of 250‰ was taken into consideration in the proposed study. Subsequently, the gear-rack meshing dynamics in terms of the meshing stiffness and the meshing force in both circumferential- and radial- directions were investigated. Moreover, two types of driving modes were compared to illustrate the effects of driving mode on the wheel/rail interaction and the gear-rack meshing. The results show that due to the gear-rack meshing the meshing stiffness and the meshing force are subject to the periodical variations and the gear-rack meshing can significantly affect the wheel/rail interaction, especially in the presence of track irregularities. The driving mode that the gear wheel is installed on the wheelset axle through a hollow shaft is considered as a more practical design for the rack vehicle.