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Open Access Research Article Issue
Structural health monitoring of bogie system based on transfer function method
High-speed Railway 2026, 4(2): 69-75
Published: 04 November 2025
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The bogie serves as a pivotal structural and functional unit within the rail vehicle system, and any failure in its performance can critically affect the safety and reliability of railway operations. This paper aims to develop a bogie structural health monitoring system based on the transfer function. In this study, the rigid-flexible coupling model of the bogie system will be established through the parameters and data of a real vehicle system. Propose a method for calculating the transfer function through the cross spectral density and auto spectral density. In this study, the system is constructed with the 3-axial acceleration data of the axle box and the stress of a cowcatcher. Then, calculate the transfer function of the 3-input single output system. And the system error is corrected through the sliding window method. Subsequently, the transfer function is used to predict the stress of the cowcatcher. Finally, based on the Dirlik frequency domain fatigue life estimation method, the damage and remaining life of the cowcatcher were calculated by using the measured stress and the predicted stress by transfer function. The results show that the stress results of the two methods have good consistency in both time and frequency domains, with a maximum error of only 6.5 %. It illustrates that the method can reproduce the stress state of the bogie system well. Based on this method, structural health monitoring of the bogie system can be realized.

Open Access Literature review Issue
A critical review of wheel/rail high frequency vibration-induced vibration fatigue of railway bogie in China
Railway Sciences 2024, 3(2): 177-215
Published: 29 March 2024
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Purpose

This review aims to give a critical view of the wheel/rail high frequency vibration-induced vibration fatigue in railway bogie.

Design/methodology/approach

Vibration fatigue of railway bogie arising from the wheel/rail high frequency vibration has become the main concern of railway operators. Previous reviews usually focused on the formation mechanism of wheel/rail high frequency vibration. This paper thus gives a critical review of the vibration fatigue of railway bogie owing to the short-pitch irregularities-induced high frequency vibration, including a brief introduction of short-pitch irregularities, associated high frequency vibration in railway bogie, typical vibration fatigue failure cases of railway bogie and methodologies used for the assessment of vibration fatigue and research gaps.

Findings

The results showed that the resulting excitation frequencies of short-pitch irregularity vary substantially due to different track types and formation mechanisms. The axle box-mounted components are much more vulnerable to vibration fatigue compared with other components. The wheel polygonal wear and rail corrugation-induced high frequency vibration is the main driving force of fatigue failure, and the fatigue crack usually initiates from the defect of the weld seam. Vibration spectrum for attachments of railway bogie defined in the standard underestimates the vibration level arising from the short-pitch irregularities. The current investigations on vibration fatigue mainly focus on the methods to improve the accuracy of fatigue damage assessment, and a systematical design method for vibration fatigue remains a huge gap to improve the survival probability when the rail vehicle is subjected to vibration fatigue.

Originality/value

The research can facilitate the development of a new methodology to improve the fatigue life of railway vehicles when subjected to wheel/rail high frequency vibration.

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