Rail vehicle response to lateral carbody excitations imitating crosswind

Repeatable field tests to measure the vehicle response to unsteady crosswinds are not practical due to safety and economic reasons. Simulations are therefore necessary to gather information on the vehicle response to crosswind. However, in turn, these simulations need to be validated. This study presents results of measured quasi-static and dynamic responses of a stationary rail vehicle due to defined lateral carbody excitations imitating unsteady crosswind, which are reflected by multibody simulations. The vehicle responses are measured in terms of suspension deflections, lateral carbody accelerations and vertical wheel/rail forces. The vehicle dynamic response to a gust-like event results in an overshoot of wheel unloading. In general the measurements and simulations show good agreement. However, the simulations partly overestimate the responses slightly and an influence due to airspring levelling can be observed in the measured values of quasi-static load cases.