Discussion on Fatigue Reliability Evaluation Method of Welded Structure of Carbody Based on Digital Twin

Taking the key welds of the heavy-duty gondola carbody as the research object, first, the fatigue assessment of the carbody is carried out based on the quasi-static the main S–N curve method, and the quasi-static evaluation method is discussed; second, the typical welds are selected. Based on the full-size bench physical test and virtual test of railway freight carbody, the quasi-static method is discussed; finally, the line test is used to verify the results. The results show that: (1) among all the load conditions in the quasi-static analysis of railway freight cars, the damage of the core plate needs to be considered according to different parts of the carbody, and this condition is effective for the evaluation of the bearing area of the linear load transfer of the carbody for the welds with nonlinear load transfer such as floor, the stress response caused by core plate load has the problem of over-estimation of damage. (2) The lap weld of floor and beam is less damaged under heavy load, but the stress response is larger in empty state, which indicates that the vibration effect should be considered in the design. (3) The virtual test can make up for the problem of traditional quasi-static analysis. The combination of the two can better realize the fatigue reliability evaluation of carbody. This article is available in the ASME Digital Collection at https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4063299.