Design and safety analysis of a 11-Waggon consist for transporting rails

A special case study of a rail transport consist comprised of 11 wagons on three-piece bogies was carried out using advanced multi-body vehicle simulations to evaluate if the safety and stability of the wagons would be compromised by loading 39 continuous welded rails on the wagon decks. Each rail was 139 m long and laterally fastened to the wagon decks. The wagon model components, including a car body, two bolsters, 4 sideframes and 4 wheelsets, were connected by non-linear spring and damping elements. A non-linear coupler was used to connect the adjacent wagon models. A twist simulation for a single wagon model was conducted and the results were compared with experimental data for validation. The lateral stability analysis found that the lowest critical hunting speed was 90 km/h for the empty wagon model, which satisfies the current operational speed range from 0 to 70 km/h. Safety simulations were conducted on the curved track geometry modelled from the actual track alignment and included FRA Class 4 track irregularities. The safety simulation results indicated that the 11-wagon consist performed within the maximum safety criteria limits as stipulated in the AS7509:2017 standard.