Correlation between Ride Comfort Index and Sperling's Index for Evaluation Ride Comfort in Railway Vehicles

Abstract

Ride comfort is a reference point in evaluating the dynamic performance in railway vehicles. There are more methods to assess the ride comfort, depending on the traffic details and the specific needs of a railway administration. This paper focuses on the comfort index methods, in accordance with UIC Leaflet 513 R and the standard of railway applications ENV 12299, and the ride Sperling’s method, formulated by Sperling. A correlation is drawn between the comfort indices corresponding to the two methods, based on the link between the comfort and the values of these indices. The comfort indices derived from the two methods by numerical simulations help with validating the fact that, in general, the velocity influences the vertical ride comfort, and, in particular, the position of the carbody critical points, from the perspective of the ride comfort.