Impact damage behavior of lightweight CFRP protection suspender on railway vehicles

Jian Jiang; Zhifang Zhang; Jiyang Fu; Karthik Ram Ramakrishnan; Caizheng Wang; Hongxu Wang

Materials & Design (Jan 2022)

Impact damage behavior of lightweight CFRP protection suspender on railway vehicles

Jian Jiang,
Zhifang Zhang,
Jiyang Fu,
Karthik Ram Ramakrishnan,
Caizheng Wang,
Hongxu Wang

Affiliations

Jian Jiang: Research Center for Wind Engineering and Engineering Vibration, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Zhifang Zhang: Research Center for Wind Engineering and Engineering Vibration, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China; Corresponding authors.
Jiyang Fu: Research Center for Wind Engineering and Engineering Vibration, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China; Corresponding authors.
Karthik Ram Ramakrishnan: Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PJ, UK
Caizheng Wang: School of Aerospace Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Hongxu Wang: School of Engineering and Information Technology, The University of New South Wales, Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 213
p. 110332

Abstract

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The lightweight design of railway vehicle components using fiber reinforced polymers (FRPs) has become a research hotspot due to the strong need for energy saving and environmental protection. This paper aims to evaluate the impact damage behavior of a carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) protection suspender, which is a component on railway vehicles to prevent the falling joist and bolster from touching the rails and to avoid the derailment of trains. A finite element (FE) model of the CFRP protection suspender, which considered varying bolt preloads was established in ABAQUS/Explicit. The bolt preload was successfully applied around the installation holes on the protection suspender by deliberately reducing the local temperature of the bolt shank to create shrinkage. The impact behavior of the protection suspender was then analyzed, and the impact-induced damage was governed by the Continuum Damage Mechanics (CDM) models, which include both intra-laminar damage and inter-laminar damage. The low-velocity impact response of the CFRP protection suspender was investigated with the lay-ups of [0]10 and [0/90/0/90/0]S under different bolt preloads (i.e. 0, 5 and 20 kN). The results showed that the vulnerable positions of the protection suspenders included the contact edge between the protection suspender and the impactor, the curved corner of the suspender, and the areas around the bolt holes. In addition, the protection suspender with the lay-up of [0]10 had better impact resistance than that with the lay-up of [0/90/0/90/0]S. By applying different preloads, it showed that the increase of bolt preloads could help to prevent the occurrence of crack damage around the installation holes, thus improving the structural safety when subjected to low-velocity impact. The present simulation results offered great value for the lightweight design and structural optimization of a protection suspender on railway vehicles that had to survive from sudden impact loads in service.

Published in Materials & Design

ISSN: 0264-1275 (Print); 1873-4197 (Online)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Technology: Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering: Materials of engineering and construction. Mechanics of materials
Website: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/materials-and-design

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