A nonlinear rubber spring model for the dynamics simulation of a high-speed train

A simple and more-accurate nonlinear rubber spring model is proposed for railway vehicle dynamics analysis. The characteristics of dynamic stiffness and damping are investigated through both simulations and lab tests with various displacement amplitude and frequency. Similar to the existing rubber models, the proposed model contains three components, an elastic force, damper force and the Maxwell element, which are used to present the frequency- and amplitude-dependence. The model has four nonlinear inputs, which are determined by test results. In order to utilise all the test results under various excitations, five extra constants are introduced during the model parameter identification to minimise the error between the computing results and tests. Comparative analysis shows that the computing results of the proposed model has an overall good agreement with measurements under various excitations at either low or high frequency under environment temperature -40 degrees C to 50 degrees C, and requires a lower computational cost than the existing rubber spring model with either friction or fractional calculus. Thus it is more suitable for the vehicle dynamics analysis of a high-speed train.