A fast co-simulation approach to vehicle/track interaction with finite element models of S&C

Abstract: Simulations of vehicle/track interaction (VTI) in switches and crossings (S&C) require taking into account the complexity of their geometry. The VTI can be handled via a co-simulation process between a finite element (FE) model of the track and a multibody system (MBS) software. The objective of this paper is to reduce the computing effort in the co-simulation process. In the proposed approach, the VTI problem is solved inside the MBS software to reduce the computational effort in the track model as well as the flow of input/output between both modules. The FE code is used to supply the matrices of stiffness, damping and mass at the beginning of the simulation. An explicit time scheme is used with mass scaling. A good agreement is found between both approaches with a reduction of the computing time by a factor of 10. This new approach allows the optimisation of the design of S&C in further studies.