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.
Locomotive Data Acquisition Package. Volume IV. Instrumented Coupler Pin Development
1982
30 pages
Report
No indication
English
Development and Use of Instrumented Locomotive Wheelsets
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1981
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