Multi-Material Optimization of a Simplified Railcar Truck Stand

Raghu Echempati

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Mechanical Engineering: Assorted Topics
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40615
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40615
Download Count: 326

Paper Authors

biography

Raghu Echempati Kettering University

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Raghu Echempati is a senior professor of Mechanical Engineering at Kettering University, Flint, MI with expertise in Mechanisms Design, Applied FEA, Mechanical Engineering Design, Metal Forming Simulation and Automotive Lightweighting and Joining Technologies. He has over 3 decades of academic teaching, industrial consulting and applied research in the areas of expertise mentioned earlier. He worked as a faculty intern at Bosch, General Motors and GEMA (Chrysler Div). He established several study abroad programs in Germany and Australia and taught at HTWG, Konstanz, and Brazil. He was a Fulbright scholar to teach in Thailand at KMUTT (Bangkok) and at IIT Delhi (India). He also received Erskine Scholar Fellowship to teach in New Zealand. He gives keynote and invited talks at several international universities. He has supervised around 200 bachelor and master student theses. He has published over 180 technical articles, journal and conference papers of repute.

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Abstract

The objective of the work presented in this paper is to gain an understanding of the structural analysis and of a simplified railcar truck stand using the computational (CAE/FEA) and math tools. Railcar truck stands are used in railway industry and consist of several complex shaped members that are welded together. They are used during maintenance operations to support one end of a freight car or a commuter car, for example, to change the wheel bearings, etc., while the other end is on the rail track. From a safety perspective, the stand needs to be designed carefully, but at the same time due to their possible large volume of production, this structure needs to be optimized from strength and cost perspectives besides other parameters such as long life, etc.

The work carried out in this paper is based on one of the term projects of a mezzanine level mechanical engineering (ME) elective course on Lightweighting and Joining of Structures. The 11-week duration class (including the final exam week) at Kettering University consisted of both senior undergraduate and graduate ME students. The prerequisites for the course include mechanics, CAE, design, material science and finite element analysis (FEA). For the analysis carried in this paper, the currently used all-steel railcar truck stand has been redesigned and modeled as a simplified 3D space frame using standard tubular (pipe section) members. Although the simplified model does not represent in any way the actual stand used in the railcar industry, it is anticipated to serve the same purpose as the original stand as stated in the first paragraph. One of the course learning objectives (CLOs) is to model a given real physical system ready for analysis, and this simplification addresses to some extent the stated CLO. Modeling of 1D and 3D structural frames along with the underlying assumptions, and their limitations has been discussed in the class following real life examples available in the standard textbooks on CAD and finite element analysis. Traditional strength, buckling and impact analyses of the simplified 3D model of the frame have been carried out in this work under various loading and constraint conditions. Further, virtual experiments for the optimal design and material makeup of the various truck stand designs analyzed using the NX CAE tool has been carried out and the results compared with the results from 1D simulation have been compared with an earlier work that used the AutoDesk simulation tool. The main design variables in these stands are the geometry, material and safety factor. The teaching and learning outcomes of the work along with the safety and ethical issues have been discussed. It is hoped that through this study the students develop a clear understanding of assumptions made in the CAD and FEA course topics on frames and how they address the CLOs.

Citation
Format

Echempati, R. (2022, August), Multi-Material Optimization of a Simplified Railcar Truck Stand Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40615

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The objective of the work presented in this paper is to gain an understanding of the structural analysis and of a simplified railcar truck stand using the computational (CAE/FEA) and math tools. Railcar truck stands are used in railway industry and consist of several complex shaped members that are welded together. They are used during maintenance operations to support one end of a freight car or a commuter car, for example, to change the wheel bearings, etc., while the other end is on the rail track. From a safety perspective, the stand needs to be designed carefully, but at the same time due to their possible large volume of production, this structure needs to be optimized from strength and cost perspectives besides other parameters such as long life, etc. 

The work carried out in this paper is based on one of the term projects of a mezzanine level mechanical engineering (ME) elective course on Lightweighting and Joining of Structures. The 11-week duration class (including the final exam week) at Kettering University consisted of both senior undergraduate and graduate ME students. The prerequisites for the course include mechanics, CAE, design, material science and finite element analysis (FEA). For the analysis carried in this paper, the currently used all-steel railcar truck stand has been redesigned and modeled as a simplified 3D space frame using standard tubular (pipe section) members. Although the simplified model does not represent in any way the actual stand used in the railcar industry, it is anticipated to serve the same purpose as the original stand as stated in the first paragraph. One of the course learning objectives (CLOs) is to model a given real physical system ready for analysis, and this simplification addresses to some extent the stated CLO.  Modeling of 1D and 3D structural frames along with the underlying assumptions, and their limitations has been discussed in the class following real life examples available in the standard textbooks on CAD and finite element analysis. Traditional strength, buckling and impact analyses of the simplified 3D model of the frame have been carried out in this work under various loading and constraint conditions. Further, virtual experiments for the optimal design and material makeup of the various truck stand designs analyzed using the NX CAE tool has been carried out and the results compared with the results from 1D simulation have been compared with an earlier work that used the AutoDesk simulation tool. The main design variables in these stands are the geometry, material and safety factor. The teaching and learning outcomes of the work along with the safety and ethical issues have been discussed. It is hoped that through this study the students develop a clear understanding of assumptions made in the CAD and FEA course topics on frames and how they address the CLOs.
AU  - Raghu Echempati
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Multi-Material Optimization of a Simplified Railcar Truck Stand
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/40615
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--40615
ER  -