Development of Railway Ride Comfort Prediction Model: Incorporating Track Geometry and Rolling Stock Conditions
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 146, Issue 3
Abstract
Passenger ride comfort (PRC) is one of the most important performance indicators of railway transportation. The current methods for computation and evaluation of railway ride comfort require measurement of train accelerations and dynamic vehicle–track interaction parameters, which is costly and sometimes impractical. Despite the importance of passenger ride comfort in design and operation of railways, there is a lack a reliable PRC prediction model in the available literature. Addressing this limitation, an effective and practical PRC prediction model/index is established in this study, taking into consideration track and rolling stock influencing parameters for the first time. For this purpose, correlations were developed between PRC levels and track geometry parameters as well as rolling stock dynamic properties. The PRC level was computed based on accelerations obtained from accelerometers installed on the wagon floor. The track geometry parameters were obtained from a track recording car. Practicability and reliability of the prediction model were discussed by applying the model in a railway line. A good agreement was shown between the PRC levels obtained from the prediction model and those of field measurements. Application of the prediction model in the real world of railway engineering is illustrated.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
References
Abdi, H. 2004. “Partial regression coefficients.” Encyclopedia of social sciences research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Berawi, A. R. B., R. Delgado, R. Calçada, and C. Vale. 2010. “Evaluating track geometrical quality through different methodologies.” Int. J. Technol. 1 (1): 38–47.
British Standard. 1987. Measurement and evaluation of human exposure to whole-body mechanical vibration and repeated shock. BS 6841. London: BSI.
CEN (European Committee for Standardization). 2009. Railway applications—Ride comfort for passengers—Measurement and evaluation. EN 12299. Brussels, Belgium: CEN.
Chatterjee, S., and A. S. Hadi. 2015. Regression analysis by example. New York: Wiley.
Cleon, L. M., and G. Lauriks. 1996. “Evaluation of passenger comfort in railway vehicles.” J. Low Freq. Noise Vibr. 15 (2): 53–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/026309239601500201.
Cohen, J., P. Cohen, S. G. West, and L. S. Aiken. 2013. Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. London: Routledge.
Connolly, D. P., G. Kouroussis, O. Laghrouche, C. L. Ho, and M. C. Forde. 2015. “Benchmarking railway vibrations—Track, vehicle, ground and building effects.” Constr. Build. Mater. 92 (1): 64–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2014.07.042.
Das, S., S. Bhattacharjee, and P. Ghosh. 2008. Roof strength requirement for vehicles involved in rollover crash. Warrendale, PA: SAE International.
Dumitriu, M. 2012. “Influence of the suspension damping on ride comfort of passenger railway vehicles.” UPB Sci. Bull. Ser. D: Mech. Eng. 74 (4): 75–90.
Dumitriu, M. 2013. “Evaluation of the comfort index in railway vehicles depending on the vertical suspension features.” Int. J. Eng. 4 (1): 23–32.
Dumitriu, M. 2017. “Ride comfort enhancement in railway vehicle by the reduction of the car body structural flexural vibration.” In Vol. 227 of Proc., IOP Conf. on Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 1–12. Bristol, UK: IOP Publishing.
Garcia, A., and F. F. Espanoles. 2010. Relationship between rail service operating direct costs and speed: Study and research group for economics and transport operation. Paris: International Union of Railways.
Gomez Suarez, M., and M. P. Martinez Ruiz. 2016. Handbook of research on strategic retailing of private label products in a recovering economy. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Graa, M., M. Nejlaoui, A. Houidi, Z. Affi, and L. Romdhane. 2014. “Modeling and simulation for vertical rail vehicle dynamic vibration with comfort evaluation.” Multiphys. Modell. Simul. Syst. Des. Monit. 2 (1): 47–57.
Hocking, R. R. 2013. Methods and applications of linear models: Regression and the analysis of variance. New York: Wiley.
ISO. 1997. Mechanical vibration and shock—Evaluation of human exposure to whole-body vibrations. ISO 2631-1. Geneva: ISO.
ISO. 2001. Mechanical vibration-measurement and analysis of whole-body vibration to which passengers and crew are exposed in railway vehicles. ISO 10056. Geneva: ISO.
Kargarnovin, M. H., D. Younesian, D. Thompson, and C. Jones. 2005. “Ride comfort of high-speed trains travelling over railway bridges.” Veh. Syst. Dyn. 43 (3): 173–197. https://doi.org/10.1080/00423110512331335111.
Kargarnovin, M. H., D. Younesian, D. J. Thompson, and C. J. Jones. 2004. “Nonlinear vibration and comfort analysis of high-speed trains moving over railway bridges.” In Proc., ASME 7th Biennial Conf. on Engineering Systems Design and Analysis, 237–246. New York: ASME.
Ketchum, C. D., and A. Meddah. 2014. Performance based track geometry-PBTG. Phase: 2. Pueblo, CO: Transportation Technology Center.
Ketchum, C. D., and N. Wilson. 2012. Performance based track geometry, Phase 1.. Pueblo, CO: Transportation Technology Center.
Kim, H. C., Y. J. Shin, W. You, K. C. Jung, J. S. Oh, and S. B. Choi. 2016. “A ride quality evaluation of a semi-active railway vehicle suspension system with MR damper: Railway field tests.” J. Rail Rapid Transit. 231 (3): 306–316. https://doi.org/10.1177/0954409716629706.
Kim, Y. G., H. B. Kwon, S. W. Kim, C. K. Kim, and T. W. Kim. 2003. “Correlation of ride comfort evaluation methods for railway vehicles.” Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part F: J. Rail Rapid Transit. 217 (2): 73–88. https://doi.org/10.1243/095440903765762823.
Kim, Y. S., T. K. Lim, S. H. Park, and R. G. Jeong. 2008. “Dynamic model for ride comfort evaluations of the rubber-tired light rail vehicle.” Veh. Syst. Dyn. 46 (11): 1061–1082. https://doi.org/10.1080/00423110701759637.
Kristoufek, L. 2014. “Detrending moving-average cross-correlation coefficient: Measuring cross-correlations between non-stationary series.” Physica A 406 (1): 169–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2014.03.015.
Liassides, M. C., S. Eslimy-Isfahany, and K. Gidado. 2015. “Integrating highway engineering and transformation project management.” In Proc., 6th Int. Conf. on Engineering, Project, and Production Management 495–507. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Lin, Y., L. Xin, C. Yang, and Z. Zou. 2001. “Study on dynamic response of train excited by the irregularity of track on the high speed railway bridge.” J. Vib. Shock. 3 (1): 47–49.
Moghimi, H., and H. R. Ronagh. 2008. “Development of a numerical model for bridge–vehicle interaction and human response to traffic-induced vibration.” Eng. Struct. 30 (12): 3808–3819. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2008.06.015.
More, R. U., and R. S. Bindu. 2015. “Comfort analysis of passenger car vehicle seat.” Int. J. Eng. Sci. Innovative Technol. 4 (4): 95–100.
Narayanamoorthy, R., V. H. Saran, V. K. Goel, S. P. Harsha, S. Khan, and M. Berg. 2008. “Determination of activity comfort in Swedish passenger trains.” In Proc., 8th World Congress on Railway Research, 18–22. Roorkee, India: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee.
ORE (Office for Research and Experiments of the International Union of Railways). 1981. Quantitative evaluation of geometry track parameters determining vehicle behavior: Introductory study to the problem of assessing track geometry on the basis of vehicle response. Utrecht, Netherlands: ORE Publisher.
Park, M. S., T. Fukuda, T. G. Kim, and S. Maeda. 2013. “Health risk evaluation of whole-body vibration by ISO 2631-5 and ISO 2631-1 for operators of agricultural tractors and recreational vehicles.” Ind. Health 51 (3): 364–370. https://doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.2012-0045.
Pradhan, S., A. K. Samantaray, and R. Bhattacharyya. 2017. “Evaluation of ride comfort in a railway passenger vehicle with integrated vehicle and human body bond graph model.” In Proc., ASME Int. Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. New York: ASME.
Rodionov, S. 2015. “A sequential method of detecting abrupt changes in the correlation coefficient and its application to Bering Sea climate.” Climate 3 (3): 474–491. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli3030474.
Sadeghi, J. 2010. “Development of railway track geometry indexes based on statistical distribution of geometry data.” J. Transp. Eng. 136 (8): 693–700. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-947X(2010)136:8(693).
Sadeghi, J. 2012. Investigation on the effects of vehicle and track parameters on the passenger ride comfort. Tehran, Iran: Iran Univ. of Science and Technology.
Sadeghi, J., and H. Askarinejad. 2011. “Development of track condition assessment model based on visual inspection.” Struct. Infrastruct. Eng. 7 (12): 895–905. https://doi.org/10.1080/15732470903194676.
Sadeghi, J., M. Fathali, and N. Boloukian. 2009. “Development of a new track geometry assessment technique incorporating rail cant factor.” Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part F: J. Rail Rapid Transit. 223 (3): 255–263. https://doi.org/10.1243/09544097JRRT237.
Sadeghi, J., H. Heydari, and E. Amiri Doloei. 2017. “Improvement of railway maintenance approach by developing a new railway condition index.” J. Transp. Eng. Part A. 143 (8): 04017037. https://doi.org/10.1061/JTEPBS.0000063.
Sadeghi, J., A. Khajehdezfuly, M. Esmaeili, and D. Poorveis. 2016a. “Dynamic interaction of vehicle and discontinuous slab track considering nonlinear Hertz contact model.” J. Transp. Eng. 142 (4): 04016011. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)TE.1943-5436.0000823.
Sadeghi, J., A. Khajehdezfuly, M. Esmaeili, and D. Poorveis. 2016b. “Investigation of rail irregularity effects on wheel/rail dynamic force in slab track: Comparison of two and three dimensional models.” J. Sound Vib. 374 (1): 228–244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2016.03.033.
Sadeghi, J., S. Rabiee, and A. Khajehdezfuly. 2019. “Effect of rail irregularities on ride comfort of train moving over ballast-less tracks.” Int. J. Struct. Stab. Dyn. 19 (06): 1950060. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219455419500603.
Sharma, R. C. 2016. “Evaluation of passenger ride comfort of Indian rail and road vehicles with ISO 2631-1 standards: Part 1-mathematical modeling.” Int. J. Veh. Struct. Sys. 8 (1): 1–6. https://doi.org/10.4273/ijvss.8.1.01.
Sharma, S. K., and A. Kumar. 2018. “Ride comfort of a higher speed rail vehicle using a magnetorheological suspension system.” Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part K: J. Multi-Body Dyn. 232 (1): 32–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464419317706873.
Strandemar, K. 2005. On objective measures for ride comfort evaluation. Stockholm, Sweden: Royal Institute of Technology.
Thieme, I. H. V. E. 1961. Passenger riding comfort criteria and methods of analyzing ride and vibration data. Warrendale, PA: SAE International.
UIC (International Union of Railways). 1994. Guidelines for evaluating passenger comfort in relation to vibration in railway vehicle. UIC 513R. Paris: UIC Publisher.
Wu, Y. S., and Y. B. Yang. 2003. “Steady-state response and riding comfort of trains moving over a series of simply supported bridges.” Eng. Struct. 25 (2): 251–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0141-0296(02)00147-5.
Yang, Z., Y. Chen, Z. Tang, and N. Zhang. 2013. “A subjective evaluation system for high speed trains ride comfort.” In Proc., Int. Conf. on Computational Intelligence and Design, 88–91. New York: IEEE Computer Society’s Conference Publishing Service.
Yau, J. D., Y. B. Yang, and S. R. Kuo. 1999. “Impact response of high-speed rail bridges and riding comfort of rail cars.” Eng. Struct. 21 (9): 836–844. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0141-0296(98)00037-6.
Younesian, D., A. Solhmirzaei, and A. Gachloo. 2009. “Fatigue life estimation of MD36 and MD523 bogies based on damage accumulation and random fatigue theory.” J. Mech. Sci. Technol. 23 (8): 2149–2156. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-009-0622-y.
Zhai, W., P. Liu, J. Lin, and K. Wang. 2015. “Experimental investigation on vibration behavior of a CRH train at speed of 350 km/h.” Int. J. Rail Transp. 3 (1): 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/23248378.2014.992819.
Zhai, W., K. Wang, and C. Cai. 2009. “Fundamentals of vehicle–track coupled dynamics.” Veh. Syst. Dyn. 47 (11): 1349–1376. https://doi.org/10.1080/00423110802621561.
Zhang, Z., and M. Dhanasekar. 2012. “Dynamics of railway wagons subjected to braking torques on defective tracks.” Int. J. Veh. Mech. Mobility. 50 (1): 109–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/00423114.2011.571265.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 146 • Issue 3 • March 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 6, 2019
Accepted: Aug 26, 2019
Published online: Jan 14, 2020
Published in print: Mar 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Jun 14, 2020
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.