Ride comfort analysis of high-speed train with flexible car bodies

In the development of high-speed trains, ride comfort is an important factor that determines the quality of the train. In this study, the ride comforts of high-speed trains with rigid and flexible car bodies were evaluated. The rail irregularity is used as an exciting source of the car-body bounce motion. The complex extruded structures of the car-body are modeled as shell structures using the calculated equivalent stiffness of the flexible model. The numerical results show that the ride of the rigid-body model improves as the speed increases, which is unreasonable. In contrast, the relationship between ride comfort and speed in the case of flexible-body model is reasonable. Thus, it is confirmed that the flexibility of the car body needs to be taken into consideration while fabricating a high-speed train.