A new approach to define criteria for rail vehicle model validation

Validation of railway vehicle models is an important condition for the application of multi-body system simulations in the context of vehicle authorisation. Validation investigations carried out in the DynoTRAIN project represent a unique investigation. The measurements, received from a set of vehicles running through four European countries equipped with a simultaneous recording of track irregularities and rail profiles, were compared with simulations using vehicle models built in different simulation tools by several partners. The presented analyses resulted in a proposal of model validation based on 12 quantities covering the quasi-static and dynamic wheel/rail force measurements and vertical as well as lateral vehicle body accelerations. For each quantity, a set of at least 24 comparisons between simulations and measurements are evaluated using values based on EN 14363 from at least 12 sections, which represent all 4 test zones according to EN 14363. The proposed method, criteria and limit values are intended for the validation of vehicle models applied in the vehicle acceptance process.