Coupling OCREC Contact Code With ADAMS: Simulations of One Coach at 130mph

This paper presents the Online Calculation of Railway Elastic Contacts (OCREC), a dynamic railway calculation tool based on an advanced contact kernel, and its coupling with the MSC ADAMS multi-body commercial software. The OCREC contact kernel is used as a subroutine of multi-body codes in order to calculate contact forces between wheelsets and rails. The OCREC method is “online” as it not only redefines new contact parameters at each time step but also determines all simultaneous contacts on each wheel as allowed by Hertz Elasticity theory. From the normal forces and relative velocities given by the Hertz theory, Tangential Forces are calculated using Kalker’s FASTSIM (modified for elliptical pressure distribution). After a description of the OCREC theory, the paper presents the linkage between OCREC and MSC ADAMS software. OCREC calculates contact forces within a Frenet frame (oxyz) following the track layout where ox is tangent to the track; oy is horizontal and oz normal to oxy. As ADAMS calculates inside a different frame, and as it has no built-in track system, it was necessary to develop a program capable of connecting 3 different frames: the ‘dummy’ track frame, the Frenet frame and the fixed ADAMS frame. Note that the ‘dummy’ frame is directly calculated from railway track curvature measurements recorded in so-called ‘space curves’. The OCREC ADAMS link is first validated by a bogie rolling on a dummy track. With the equations of the OCRECYM code established directly within the “dummy” frame, the OCREC-ADAMS results are compared to a specific OCRECYM validation code. Then, the results from an actual railway case are presented: behavior of one coach is calculated on a real measured track including curves and defaults. During the following step, the OCREC-ADAMS results are compared to OCRECYM results. After some model updating for adjustment to physical properties of elastic joints (helicoidal springs), a good correlation is obtained between the codes. The analysis of the different force and displacement components proves this kind of numerical tool’s capabilities of assessing the railway vehicle’s dynamic behavior. Especially, the Y/Q safety ratio is well calculated. Thus, the OCREC contact kernel, which is powerful for complex contact topologies such as conformal contacts, and necessary for high speed safety calculation, can be used as a subroutine of standard multi-body software, giving it high capabilities for dynamic railway calculation.