Rail Bogie Fatigue Testing

New Bogie for old tracks

An innovative new design of rail car bogie is to be evaluated for its survival through the life cycle on an existing intra-city track system. Some areas of the track system dated over 100 years old presenting a unique fatigue environment.

Multi-axial fatigue testing for verification of life prediction

The new bogie was tested with track load and vibration forces recorded independently, and applied to the 10 axis’ for vertical load, acceloration-braking, passenger, sway and emergency braking forces through a 20 year lifespan. The test fixture was designed and buit by Metcut, with fixture validation through FEA. Our MTS Flex controller provides coordinated control of the various forces while recording the force and displacment data throughout the 23 day fatigue test. The 250 strain gages were also recorded and outputs coordinated with the dynamic records. The forces ranged within a 100kip cyclic window. 

Authored By: William Grieszmer, Chief Engineer. For more information on this subject or other testing solutions contact Bill at wgrieszmer@Metcut.com