Non-stationary random vibration of a coupled vehicle–slab track system using a parallel algorithm based on the pseudo excitation method

A parallel algorithm based on the pseudo excitation method (PEM) is applied to investigate the non-stationary random response of a vertically coupled vehicle–slab track system subjected to random excitation induced by track irregularity. The vehicle is simplified as a multibody system with 10 degrees of freedom and the slab track is represented by a three layer Bernoulli–Euler beam model which includes the rail, slab and roadbed. Linear wheel–rail contact provides interaction between the vehicle and slab track models. The track irregularity is assumed to be a Gaussian random process with zero mean value and the non-stationary random response of the coupled vehicle–slab track system is solved using a combination of PEM and step-by-step integration. A parallel algorithm based on PEM is used to accelerate the computation and the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by the Monte Carlo method. The basic random performance of the coupled vehicle–slab track system is analysed and the effects of the vehicle speed and slab track parameters on the random responses of the vehicle and slab track are investigated. The results indicate that the vehicle speed has a significant effect on the random response of the coupled vehicle–slab track system and that the rail pad parameters are the most important of the slab track parameters discussed.