Page 11 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 5

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número 5 - junio - 2018. Pág 9 - 21

Lightweight primary structures for High-speed railway carbodies

De la Guerra, Eduardo

Talgo
1

Abstract
The railway industry are looking to increase the capacity of the railway system,
bringing flexibility in order to align capacity and demand, to increase availability,
reliability and energy efficiency reducing life cycle costs (LCC) and an improvement
of the passenger comfort and the attractiveness of the rail transport.
One of the lines of action to solve the above challenges is the introduction of new
carbody structures. The weight saving potential of the use of new materials and
technologies in the carbody structures would result in reduced power consumption,
lower inertia, less track wear and the ability to carry greater payloads.
One example of the employ of light structures is Talgo AVRIL train, with an
innovative layout of seats that allows to introduce one extra seat per row (3+2
configuration), increasing dramatically the capacity of the train. It has been
possible, respecting the current regulatory framework, with an optimized design
of the extruded aluminium structure.
It will be presented different challenges of introducing lighter structures in the
carbodies of coaches of high speed train and different studies and projects to
describe the future possibilities of new material and methodologies to improve
the lightness of the vehicles.

Keywords: lightweight, Rolling stock, carbody.

1 De la Guerra, Eduardo. Technical Leader of the R&D Projects. Structures Department.Talgo. Email: edelaguerra@talgo.com

International Congress on High-speed Rail: Technologies and Long Term Impacts - Ciudad Real (Spain) - 25th anniversary Madrid-Sevilla corridor 9