Three-dimensional (3D) elastic vibrations that occur in railway car bodies can adversely affect ride comfort, and efficient numerical analysis methods are required to investigate effective countermeasures. Recent studies have shown that, in some vibration modes observed in actual railway vehicles, the lateral and vertical elastic deformations of the car body are coupled. The authors are attempting to develop a simplified vibration analysis model capable of representing such coupled vibration behavior. In this study, an existing box-shaped model with curved sidewalls was extended to include lateral deformations in the roof and floor (underframe) structures. In the extended model, structural components such as the underframe and roof panels are modeled as elastic plates for vertical deformation, while their lateral deformations are modeled as elastic beams. These vertical and lateral deformations are mutually coupled through the curved sidewalls and through the lateral and vertical motions of the bogies. This paper describes the detailed analytical procedure.
Ohwada et al. (Wed,) studied this question.