Fracture Cause Research and Structural Optimization for the Heavy-Haul Locomotive Coil Spring Based on Modal Resonance Theory

doi:10.3901/JME.2025.02.247

Abstract

Abstract: The coil springs of a certain type of heavy-haul locomotive fracture frequently, which severely jeopardizes the running stability and safety of rolling stocks. To this end, a heavy-haul locomotive dynamics model that considered flexibilities of the coil springs and wheelsets were built. From the perspectives of modal resonance and dynamic stress, key structural parameters were optimized and analyzed. Moreover, an improvement scheme was proposed and its effectiveness was validated using field tracking test data. Theoretical analysis results show that the first vertical compression modal frequency (f₁) of the coil spring is sensitive to the wire diameter and spring mean diameter. If the f₁is close to the wheel polygonal wear excitation frequency, the acceleration and dynamic stress of the coil spring will increase dramatically. The f₁ of the optimized coil spring is 107 Hz, which is away from the wheel polygonal wear excitation frequency. Field test results indicate that the improvement scheme can help to significantly decrease the equivalent stress of the coil spring. Research results are expected to provide significant reference for coil spring designing and optimization.

Key words: heavy-haul locomotive, coil spring, structural optimization, wheel polygonal wear, modal resonance

CLC Number:

U270
U264

YANG Yifan, CHEN Shiqian, WANG Kaiyun, XIAO Feixiong, MA Chengxiang. Fracture Cause Research and Structural Optimization for the Heavy-Haul Locomotive Coil Spring Based on Modal Resonance Theory[J]. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2025, 61(2): 247-256.

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