Railway Vehicle Slide Structure for Impact Energy Absorption
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional railway vehicle impact absorbing structures face challenges in reliably absorbing collision energy, often deforming under loads less than the prescribed value and risking secondary damage due to unexpected deformation, with limited energy absorption capacity and size constraints on impact absorbing members.
Innovation Solution
A railway vehicle design featuring a slide structure that moves rearward upon collision, with a holding member that breaks under tensile load to allow the slide structure to absorb energy, and an impact absorbing member between the body and slide structure to deform and absorb energy efficiently.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an impact absorbing member is integrated into the front end body structure, then the structure can absorb impact energy, but the structure requires complicated design conditions to deform as desired during collision while satisfying normal static load conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the front end structure into separate functional components: a rigid body structure and a detachable slide structure with impact absorbing members. This segmentation allows the impact absorbing function to be specialized and simplified, while the rigid body structure maintains its structural integrity for normal operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The impact absorbing members are extracted from the integrated body structure and placed within a separate slide structure. This extraction allows the impact absorbing function to be independently optimized without compromising the structural requirements of the main body.
2Loss of energy
If the conventional impact absorbing structure is used, then some impact energy can be absorbed, but the structure may deform under loads smaller than prescribed values or generate unexpected deformation moments
Solution Approach 1:
The slide structure is designed to dynamically detach from the body structure during collision through the breaking of holding members. This dynamic response ensures that the impact absorbing mechanism activates only when necessary (under collision loads) while maintaining structural stability during normal operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The holding members are designed with specific breaking loads that are lower than the prescribed collision load thresholds. This parameter setting ensures reliable activation of the impact absorbing mechanism during collisions while preventing unintended deformation under normal operating loads.
3Loss of energy
If the size of the impact absorbing member is increased to absorb more energy, then the energy absorption capacity improves, but the size of the vehicle body is constrained
Solution Approach 1:
The slide structure with impact absorbing members is designed to move rearward during collision, dynamically increasing the effective absorption distance and energy capacity without permanently occupying additional space in the vehicle body.
Solution Approach 2:
The slide structure containing impact absorbing members is nested within the vehicle body structure when not in use. During collision, it extends rearward to provide the necessary absorption capacity, effectively packing a large energy absorption mechanism into a compact form factor.
Data Source
AI summary
A slide structure 21 of a railway vehicle includes a slide end beam 22 disposed in front of an end beam 16 that constitutes a portion of a body, and a slide center beam 23 projecting rearward of the slide end beam. An underframe 12 is provided with a guide portion 24 that guides the slide center beam in the longitudinal direction of the body. The underframe 12 is also provided with a holding member 28 that holds the slide center beam at a front position of the body with respect to the guide portion. The holding member has such a tensile strength that the holding member couples the underframe and the slide structure to each other in the longitudinal direction of the body and the holding member is broken when a tensile load in a rearward direction of the body applied from the slide structure to the holding member exceeds a preset tensile load, thereby permitting the slide structure to move in the rearward direction of the body. An impact absorbing member 29 is disposed between the underframe and the slide structure.