Otimização topológica da alavanca principal do mecanismo de freio de um vagão de carga ferroviário FLF

Abstract

The railroads field in Brazil presents a year growth about 2,9% since 1997 and are expected to improve du to law changes in the sector. Freight cars are implements connected one by one in huges set-ups coupled to Dieselelectric locomotives. The search for continuous reduction in train’s mass puts on freight cars the main responsibility in improvements available when seeking for the reduction in fuel consumption and bigger load capability. By the composition weight in loaded condition and the high reliability requirements along the product life cycle, the brake parts are challenges for less material construction mode and conservation towards original setup. This work objective is to make a topology optimization of a brake system actuator mechanism main lever of a FLF type railroad freight car, reducing mass thought the minimization of equivalent von Mises stress in Ansys 2022 R1 student software version. Subjects like the student version limitations, finite element mesh quality and loads actuating in the component are shown. In the end, the found result was a model with less than 50% of the original mass, approaching 26 kg of final mass and with structure’s stress close to the original model, proving the viability of mass reduction in a mandatory use component, proving too the possibility in application form more similar components, until then never thought.