Keywords: structural lightweight design, railway vehicle, composite materials, carbon fibre reinforced plastic.

The constantly increasing demands on railway vehicles with regard to important properties such as high operational flexibility by use of battery-electric hybrid drives or multi-system capability by use of multiple electric systems result in ever greater structural masses. However, the total mass of the vehicles is limited by the maximum permissible axle loads for the infrastructure, so that a higher structural mass usually results in lower payloads. In addition, energy consumption and the related carbon emissions as well as the wear on the track and related track charges usually increase with a higher structural mass. Here, the application of carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) with its superior specific strength and stiffness for structural components of railway vehicles opens up new lightweight potentials compared to the use of classic metallic materials like steel or aluminium. But the wider structural use of CFRP in railway vehicles requires the development of suited design approaches considering the rail specific requirements and standards as well as the development of related automated and cost-effective manufacturing processes for large and thick-walled one-piece CFRP-components. These tasks have already been handled and successfully solved by CG Rail GmbH within the scope of various projects. One example is the so-called Next Generation Metro Train (NGMT) project, where a complete metro in carbon-intensive lightweight design was developed, built and tested for the first time worldwide. A highlight of this train is the successfully developed and tested lightweight bogie frame with a novel differential design, consisting of four main CFRP components that can be manufactured using automated and cost-efficient winding and braiding technology. This bogie frame is 50% lighter than the steel reference frame. In the framework of another project a novel lightweight pantograph platform made of CFRP was developed for a highspeed train achieving a mass reduction of 30 % compared to the welded aluminium reference structure. The developed and experimentally proven composite design approaches at CG Rail GmbH open up the chance for the achievement of substantial mass saving at future railway vehicles. Due to the extremely long lifetime of railway vehicles of usually 40 years and more the mass savings can lead to significant reduction of operational costs depending on the operational profile of the train resulting from the lower energy consumption, the lower wear of the track, the better corrosion resistance compared to metals and many other factors.

download the full-text of this paper (PDF, 9 pages, 922 Kb)

go to the previous paper
go to the next paper
return to the table of contents
return to the volume description