Contribution to the structural analysis of a modified railway wagon for wooden transportation

• Autor(a) principal: Cruz, Nuno António Simão da
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/43463
• topic: Railways; Flat wagon; Structural analysis; FEM

Acquiring or designing and creating new freight wagons for transporting specific goods implies high investments that do not always justify the expected traffic. The trend is to improve and update the existing rolling stock to meet the verified needs as efficiently as possible. This thesis presents the work developed within the scope of a project initiated by Medway Maintenance & Repair, which intends to convert a fleet of universal flat wagons to transport wooden logs. It describes the structural analysis carried out on the wagon's underframe to assess the feasibility of implementing a stanchion system for transporting wooden logs following the standards and guidelines applicable to this type of modification. It entailed a reverse engineering process for obtaining the wagon's underframe geometry and characterizing the base material's mechanical properties. It also demonstrates the development of the Finite Element Models (FEM) used to assess the structural integrity of the wagon before and after modification. Finally, strategic structural reinforcements are proposed for the case in study based on the results obtained.