Presented by:

Dr. Mukulesh Debnath

➢ In this presentation, a modest attempt has been
made to design the wagon tippler (WT) as per
latest RDSO specification and to optimize the
over all weight of the structure in such a way that
the efficiency of the machine in terms of power
consumption can also be improved.
➢ ANSYS software has been deployed for structural
analysis along with Autocad-3D/ CREO 2.0 for
3D model generation.
➢ To reduce overall simulation time, a parametric
relationship has been developed in ANSYS
environment to extract the required data at
various rotation of the structure.
➢ Handling of raw materials like coal, iron ores etc.
or in-process materials is very important for
smooth and continuous operation of various
industrial plants.
➢ Wagon Tippler is used for rapid unloading of
bulk loads from railway wagons with minimum
manual efforts.
➢ A tippler is simply a mechanism used to unload
railway wagons by tippling the wagons about
two pivotal supports
The main components of Wagon Tippler –

➢ Top Clamp Assembly

➢ Cradle / Tippler platform

➢ End Rings

➢ Side Support Beam

➢ Drive Unit
 Top Clamp
End Ring
Side Support
Beam

Cradle / Tippler Platform

Drive Unit
A. Top Clamp Assembly
➢ Top Clamp arrangement will facilitate
proper engagement of different type of
wagons against the Tippler Platform.
➢ The wagon tippler is equipped with six
hydraulically operated steel clamping
arms whose movement is controlled by
hydraulic cylinders.

➢ The wagon is clamped by the arm at the top of the wagon at

a pre-determined angle and hold firmly until it returns to its
normal resting position.
B. Cradle / Platform Assembly
➢ The cradle is a frame of the table, comprising two main
girders, braced together.

➢ The cradle is supported at two ends by means of pin joint

attached to toes of end ring.

➢ When tippler is in the down position the cradle rest on the

two cup & cones located on the top of the weighing machine
and it is isolated from any other form of support in order to
ensure correct weighing
C. End Rings and Side Beam Support Assembly
➢ A pair of end rings, semicircular in shape, with sector gear
mounted on the periphery is driven by two pinions fixed on
the line shaft. End rings are supported on two trunnion
mounting for the purpose of rotation.
➢ When rotated they pick up the
platform with the wagon on it,
which is inverted over the
concrete hoppers so that the
contents are discharged.
➢ It is an arrangement of longitudinal beam, which support
the weight of the wagon during the tippling operation & so
prevent it from falling off the platform.
D. Drive
➢ The drive shaft carries a pinion, which engages with sector
gear mounted on the periphery of the end ring.

➢ The pivot shaft is driven by an electric motor, through helical

gear box & spurs gearing. The arrangement provides a
means of rotating the end frames, as described earlier.

➢ The drive assembly incorporates electromagnetic brake

automatic in operation, which holds the end frames against
any movement except that provided by the electric motor.
➢ Creation of Structural model for FE analysis.

➢ Calculation of loads and transfer in the structural

Model.

➢ FE analysis

➢ Extraction of Results, Checks and Report.

To simplify the complexity of whole structure of
wagon tippler, it has been divided in the following
three segment of simulation-

➢ Top Clamp Assembly Simulation

➢ Cradle / Tippler Platform Simulation
➢ End Ring and Side Support Beam Simulation
➢ The complex wagon tippler, is modelled completely using
AutoCad 3D / CREO software and exported to
ANSYS.
➢ For analysis purpose standard planes and
additional members are drawn in ANSYS
environment only.
➢ After the complete structure is modelled, the plates,
stiffeners and masses are individually meshed.

➢ The last step to be completed before meshing the model is to

set the meshing controls, i.e. the element shape, size, the
number of divisions etc.

➢ Selecting the various parts of the model, one by one finite

element mesh is generated.

➢ The critical portions are the plates with sharp corners,

curvature etc. These areas are re-meshed with advance mesh
control options.
 Loads are generally estimated using the classification rules or
by direct calculations.
 Major forces/displacements are
applied by remote point.
 Counterweight load is given as
standard gravity load of concrete.
 Calculation models have been made based on the present
manufacturing drawings from documentation.
 Loads on model consist of automatically generated dead
weight of construction and loads from wagon and hydraulic
clamping.
 Loads on individual elements of construction simulate all
phases of machine operation, especially:
1. Entry of wagon and locomotive on wagon tippler that is
vertical thrust from wheels in various positions
regarding to wagon tippler seating beams.
2. Loads from hydraulic clamping.
3. Load from charged wagon in various tippler rotation
phases.
4. Wagon tippler rotation has been modelled through rotation
of all loads, change of loads application points and support
points suitably to individual phases of tippler operation.
Once the loads are determined; structural analyses are
carried out .
The results from these analyses are extracted and checked
for allowable stresses and deflections of the structure as
per design standards.
Different Analyses that are performed are as follows:
1) Stress Analysis of Wagon Tippler Structures and
components.
2) Deformation analysis.
3) Natural frequency of the machine.
4) To minimize the drive power, analysis has been carried
out by changing the counterweights in parametric form.
A) Top Clamp Assembly
Rotation of Wagon Tippler Vs Stress and Hydraulic Cylinder load
B. Cradle / Platform Assembly

Various Load cases Vs Stresses in Cradle Structure

C) End Ring and Side Support Beam

200.00

150.00

100.00

y = -0.024x2 + 4.1896x - 1.6397

50.00

0.00
0 50 100 150 200

Rotation of Wagon Tippler Vs Stress

 It is very important that the Wagon Tippler should operate
smoothly under various loading condition during its rotation
from 00 to 1600 with load and back.
 This paper describes the structural analysis of the wagon
Tippler as a whole.
 All the possible combination of loads are considered.
 Load report is generated at various rotation angle of Wagon
Tippler operation and accordingly load torque is found. It is
found that Wagon load torque (resisting torque) is not
constant but varies from negative to positive during forward
rotation, as well as during backward rotation.
 Using the values, graph is plotted. It is found that the graphs
have positive torque (power) for some zone and negative
torque (power) for some zone. Accordingly drive for
rotational motion is selected.
 Investigation has been made to find out the capacity of
hydraulic cylinder for Arm Clamping operation purpose.
 Drive power Optimization is also done by changing the
quantum of counterweight.
 The work is limited to structural analysis & design and
balancing of wagon tippler structure.
 After revisiting the initial design and re-analyzing and
designing the Wagon Tippler structure, we could optimize the
weight to a considerable quantity
 By parametric designing of the structure we could adjust the
counter-weight for optimizing the capacity of driving unit.
 We found that ANSYS v18.2 is capable of capturing the
material and geometric nonlinearities of the complex
structure of wagon tippler, the subject of this study.
 The application of varied types of loads and boundary
condition is also simple.
 Automation of process, with the use of ANSYS macro and
ANSYS parametric design has helped in increasing the scope
of such investigation to a large number of operating
conditions explicitly at the design stage so that the structure is
optimized and more ‘fit for purpose’ then ever before.
 We are satisfied with the user friendliness of the pre and post-
processing & the powerful meshing capability.