FAILURE INVESTIGATION OF AXLE BOX SPRING OF RAILWAY 16T COACHES

Rohan Joshi, Sachin Chaudhari, Dhanraj Choudhari, Pratik Chaugule

Abstract: Spring is an elastic member whose main function is to deflect or distort under load and to recover its original shape when load is removed. The springs used in the bogie suspension of Railway coaches are helical compression springs. Visual examination shows that failure is common between first to third coils. The exact time of failure cannot be determined as the coaches come for POH after 18 months. Some cracks also negotiate during load testing. Pattern of cracks showing it may subject to transverse forces. The cracks are detected in Magnaflux testing. The present works attempt to analyze design of primary suspension springs used in Railway coaches under transverse loading while negotiating curved path by using ANSYS 14.5 software. Stresses induced are compared with allowable stresses. Typical 16T coaches have been considered for the failure analysis.

Keywords: Helical compression springs, load & stress calculation, POH, ANSYS 14.5, Modeling, Primary Suspension system, axle box spring, Bolster spring, Creo 2.0.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2015.0404078