Evaluation of Ride Comfort in a Railway Passenger Car Depending on a Change of Suspension Parameters.

Ride comfort for passengers remains a pressing topic. The level of comfort in a vehicle can influences passengers' preferences for a particular means of transport. The article aims to evaluate the influence of changes in suspension parameters on the ride comfort for passengers. The theoretical background includes a description of the applied method for a creating the virtual model of an investigated vehicle as well as the method of evaluating the ride comfort. The ride comfort of the vehicle is assessed based on the standard method, which involves calculating the mean comfort method, i.e., ride comfort index NMV in chosen points on a body floor. The NMV ride comfort index (Mean Comfort Standard Method) requires the input of acceleration signals in three directions. The rest of the article offers the results of simulation computations. The stiffness-damping parameters of the primary and secondary suspension systems were changed at three levels and the vehicle was run on the real track section. The ride index NMV was calculated for all three modifications of the suspension system in the chosen fifteen points of the body floor. It was found that lower values in the stiffness of the secondary suspension system lead to lower levels of ride comfort in the investigated railway passenger car; however, lower values in the stiffness-damping parameters of the primary suspension system did not decrease the levels of ride comfort as significantly.

Condition Monitoring of Rail Transport Systems: A Bibliometric Performance Analysis and Systematic Literature Review.

Condition monitoring of rail transport systems has become a phenomenon of global interest over the past half a century. The approaches to condition monitoring of various rail transport systems-especially in the context of rail vehicle subsystem and track subsystem monitoring-have been evolving, and have become equally significant and challenging. The evolution of the approaches applied to rail systems' condition monitoring has followed manual maintenance, through methods connected to the application of sensors, up to the currently discussed methods and techniques focused on the mutual use of automation, data processing, and exchange. The aim of this paper is to provide an essential overview of the academic research on the condition monitoring of rail transport systems. This paper reviews existing literature in order to present an up-to-date, content-based analysis based on a coupled methodology consisting of bibliometric performance analysis and systematic literature review. This combination of literature review approaches allows the authors to focus on the identification of the most influential contributors to the advances in research in the analyzed area of interest, and the most influential and prominent researchers, journals, and papers. These findings have led the authors to specify research trends related to the analyzed area, and additionally identify future research agendas in the investigation from engineering perspectives.