Page 13 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 5

Lightweight primary structures for High-speed railway carbodies

weight, (Joost, 2012) in a combined manner should result in reductions of energy consumption
in operation. The main results expected should be:
• Traction efficiency will increase significantly with new developments in power electronics;

• At the same time, the reduction in vehicle weight derived from lighter structures, lighter
traction equipment and elimination of physical equipment will equally support energy
consumption reduction;
So it is clear that the new generation of carbodies will be a lightweight carbodies, manufactured
in new lighter materials, specially made by hybrid structures (composite and metallic materials)
compared with the actual ones made fully metallic (steel or aluminium). This approach allows
more passengers per vehicle or more equipment without reaching the maximum allowed axle
load reducing power consumption, lower inertia, less track wear and the ability to carry greater
payloads.

But as the motto of the White Paper said “The future of our mobility…Today”, all the different
bidding process and projects in progress are now claiming for trains with the lowest LCC as
possible, maintaining the performance, comfort and bringing high capacity. So now it is designing
and manufacturing very optimized carbodies in terms of weight with the current technologies,
like the carbody of the AVRIL.

2. State of the art

The function of a carbody is to be the transport passenger container and also the physical link
of all the elements of the vehicle.
Historically, passenger coaches were formed by a frame normally made of wood or steel,
which received the loads coming from the track and the other coaches, and a cover which had
incorporated the doors, windows and gangways (if any).
Progressive improvements were made and self-supporting steel and aluminium carbodies were
created in order to reduce mass and improve crashworthiness. In addition, standardised solutions
and subassemblies, see Figure 1, have been introduced to become more cost effective.

Figure 1. Assembling of the main frame, the side walls and the roof takes place in a positioning and welding station.

International Congress on High-speed Rail: Technologies and Long Term Impacts - Ciudad Real (Spain) - 25th anniversary Madrid-Sevilla corridor 11