A new method has been developed for measuring the drawbar dynamic forces exerted by a railroad locomotive while pulling its payload. Such dynamic data are necessary to determine the effect of train-handling on locomotive performance, train structural stresses, and safety. Previous methods for measuring the drawbar forces modified the bulky locomotive coupler for use as the force-sensor. This resulted in expensive devices which were difficult to transport because of their bulk and which had strain-gage exposures vulnerable to damage in the severe environment of railroad operations. The new method uses a specially-designed coupler pin as the force-sensor. In this special pin, the shear-forces (imposed by the locomotive drawbar) are first transformed into bending stresses and then measured by strain-gages located inside small longitudinal holes in the shear pin. This results in important advantages over the previous methods; the new sensor is much less expensive, more easily portable (35 vs. 400 pounds) and more reliable and less susceptible to damage.


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    Title :

    Locomotive Data Acquisition Package. Volume IV. Instrumented Coupler Pin Development


    Contributors:
    J. Gunn (author) / L. Resnick (author) / T. Lauritzen (author) / D. T. Scalise (author)

    Publication date :

    1982


    Size :

    30 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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