• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.203-209
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• 2010

In this study, the fatigue characteristics and life of a woven glass fabric/epoxy laminate composite applied to railway vehicles was evaluated. The fatigue test was conducted using a tension-tension load with a stress ratio R of 0.1 and frequency of 5 Hz. Two types of woven glass fabric/epoxy laminate composite was used in the fatigue test: with and without carbon/epoxy ply reinforcement. In addition, the fatigue life of the woven glass fabric/epoxy laminate composite was compared with that of aluminum 6005, which is used in the car body and underframe structures of railway vehicles. The test results showed that the failure strength and life of the woven glass fabric/epoxy laminate composite reinforced with three carbon/epoxy plies had a remarkable improvement compared with that of the bare specimen without reinforcement.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.213-221
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• 2011

In this study, we discussed the weight reducing of a urban railway-car body, in particular, of the Korean EMU, by optimizing topology and size of aluminum extrusion profiles. The heaviest parts of aluminum railway-car bodies, i.e., the base plate of underframe and side panels of side frame composed of double skin structures are considered for optimization. Topology optimization process is applied to obtain get an optimized rib structure for the base plate. The thickness of ribs and plates of the topologically optimized base plate and the existing side panel are also optimized by employing the size optimization process. The results are verified by comparing the maximum von Mises stresses and maximum deformation in the case of the existing design with those in the case of the optimized design. It is shown that the weight of a base plate and side panel can be reduced by 12% and that the weight of the whole car body can be reduced by 8.5%.

• Composites Research
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2019

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a lightweight design for the aluminum extrusion carbody structure of a double deck high-speed train using material substitution and size optimization method. In order to conduct material substitution, the topology optimization was used to determine the application parts of sandwich composites at the carbody structures. The results of analysis showed that sandwich composites could be applied at roof and 2nd underframe. The size optimization was used to determine thickness of the aluminum extruded and carbon/epoxy composite. The design variable, state constraint and objective function were formulated to solve the size optimization, and then, the feasible design was presented by these conditions. The results of the lightweight design showed that the weight of double deck high-speed train hybrid carbody could be reduced by 2.18(17.70%) tons.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.1335-1343
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• 2012

In this study, the lightweight modular design of hybrid railway carbody structures made of sandwich composites and aluminum extrusions was investigated by using topology and size optimization techniques. The topology optimum design was used to select the best material for parts of the carbody structure at the initial design stage, and then, the size optimum design was used to find the optimal design parameters of hybrid carbody structures using first-order and sub-problem methods. Through the topology optimization analysis, it was found that aluminum extrusions were suitable for primary members such as the underframe and lower side panel module to improve the stiffness and manufacturability of the carbody structures, and sandwich composites were appropriate for secondary members such as the roof and middle side panel module to minimize its weight. Furthermore, the results obtained by size optimization analysis showed that the weight of hybrid carbody structures composed of aluminum extrusions and sandwich composites could be reduced by a maximum of approximately 17.7% in comparison with carbody structures made of only sandwich composites.