Multi-modal Vibration Control of a Double Shell Railway Car-Body Model using Passive Piezo-electric Shunt Circuit

Low Frequency Vibrations have increased significantly in railway car-bodies designed for high-speed railway operations due to the dominant effect of flexural vibration of the car-body caused by weight reduction of railway vehicles to satisfy speed requirements and energy efficiency. To reduce such low frequency vibration a twin pronged approach is proposed. Firstly, a 1/12 scaled double shell hanging car body model, consisting of an inner shell mechanically hanged within an outer shell, is utilized as a structural damping measure. Secondly, a Piezo-electric Patch Configuration (PPC) is bonded to the inner shell floor plate and coupled to a tuned multi-modal shunt circuit. The tuned shunt circuit absorbs and dissipates the flexural vibration strain energy of multiple modes on the car-body floor and significantly damps low frequency vibrations of car-body floor. Finite Element Modelling (FEM) of the proposed car-body structure, modal analysis and damped and undamped harmonic response of car-body was simulated using ANSYS 17.1.