Strength testing of side connector of railway wagon for semitrailers transport

A prototype railway wagon with a rotatable platform for an intermodal system is developed in Military University of Technology. The special railway wagon is equipped with a rotatable low flat loading floor. It can be used for transporting various types of vehicles, for example, tractors, trucks, trailers, semitrailers, cargo containers. The special wagons allows quick and convenient self-loading and unloading of vehicles and containers (no cranes needed); no platform infrastructure is required, only hardened flat surface; there is no need for hubs, terminals or special logistics; each wagon can be operated separately. A considered wagon consists of the following elements: chassis with biaxial standard Y25 bogies, frame, platform body, pneumatic systems, buffer devices, other external devices, electric equipment and hydraulic systems. A mechanism blocking rotation of a rotatable platform during transport of the load (typical semitrailers) is very important from a functionality and strength point of view of the considered wagon. Construction of such a lock allows only transmission of longitudinal load. Based on the performed FE analysis and strength tests of the wagon, it was verified that the most strenuous component of the wagon with a rotatable loading platform is a connector (lock) coupling the side of the rotatable platform with the over bogie part of the frame wagon. The selected aspects of numerical and experimental studies of the prototype railway wagon and its components are presented in the paper. FE analyses of the side lock element separated from the wagon structure are discussed as well.