Problem solving exercise 1

Problem 1: Volute spring built into the buer of a railway wagon

The gure below shows a volute sprint that is built into the buer of a railway wagon. The prestressed
spring force is Fp = 44.5 kN. The spring constant is c = 0.18 mmkN . Fb = 370 kN braking force acts on the
buer.

(a) How much is the displacement of the spring at braking?

(b) How much work is needed?
(c) Calculate the work applied on the spring as the dierence of the elastic potential energy between
the two stages!

Figure 1: Schematics of the problem

Solution
 (a):
mm
∆lp = cFp = 0.18 · 44.5 kN = 8.0 mm
kN
mm
∆lb = cFb = 0.18 · 370 kN = 66.6 mm
kN
∆l = ∆lb − ∆lp = 66.6 mm − 8.0 mm = 58.6 mm

(b):
Fp + Fb 44.5 kN + 370 kN
W = ∆l = · 58.6 mm = 12.14 kJ
2 2

Figure 2: Force as a function of the displacement. The area under the function is the work/energy
contained in the spring.

(c):

∆lb2 ∆lp2 ∆lb2 − ∆lp2

W = − =
2c 2c 2c

Note that this formula can be derived from the equation for the area under the F (∆l) curve:

Fb + Fp Fb + Fp   ∆l + ∆l   ∆l2 − ∆l2
b p b p
W = ∆l = ∆lb − ∆lp = ∆lb − ∆lp = .
2 2 2c 2c
 Problem 2: Braking of a railway wagon
A rotating wheel of a railway wagon is stopped by using two brake blocks. The friction coecient
between the brake blocks and the wheel is µ = 0.13. The initial velocity of the vehicle was 65 km
h .

(a) How much is the speed of revolution and the angular velocity of the wheel, if its diameter is
D = 910 mm?

(b) Calculate the braking torque acting on the wheel, if the pushing force is F = 6000 N!
(c) Calculate the power of braking at the start of the breaking!
(d) Assume the speed of the vehicle does not change after the braking starts. How much heat is
generated during t = 20 s?

Figure 3: Schematics of the break wheel.

Solution
(a)

km 65000 m m
v = 65 = = 18.06
h 3600 s s
v 2v 2 · 18.06 ms rad
v = Rω ⇒ ω = = = = 39.7
R D 0.91 m s
ω 39.7 rad
s 1 1
ω = 2πn ⇒ n = = = 6.32 = 379
2π 2π s min

(b)
 D
Mf = 2Ff = Ff D = µF D = 0.13 · 6000 N · 0.91 m = 710 Nm
2

(c)

rad
Pf = Mf ω = 710 Nm · 39.7 = 28187 W = 28.2 kW
s

(d)

Wf = Q = Pf t = 28187 W · 20 s = 563740 J = 563.7 kJ

 Problem 3: Traction power requirement
A railway wagon with mass 8 t moves along a horizontal straight road with constant 72 km h velocity.
The rolling friction coecient between the wheels and the rail is µrf = 0.015. The drag force of the air
and the other kind of losses of the machine are neglected.

(a) How much power is needed for traction?

(b) Calculate the required power, if the wagon moves with the same velocity on a circular path with
radius R = 140 m, hence friction force corresponding a friction coecient of µ = 0.35 arises between
the wheels and the side of the rail.

Figure 4: Schematics of the problem

Solution
km m
m = 8000 kg, v = 72 h = 20 s , µrf = 0.015
(a)

m
Fr = Gµrf = mgµrf = 8000 kg · 9.81 · 0.015 = 1177 N
s2
m
P = Fr v = 1177 N · 20 = 23455 W = 23.5 kW
s
(b)
R = 140 m, µ = 0.35

 2
m
2
v 20 s
Ff = µFcp = µm = 0.35 · 8000 kg · = 8000 N
R 140 m
m
P = (Fr + Ff )v = (1177 N + 8000 N) · 20 = 183544 W = 183.5 kW
s
 Problem 4: Trapezoid rule, the approximation of the area under the
graph of a function.
The gure shows the power of a vehicle as the function of time.

(a) How much work was made? (The approximation of the region under the graph can be obtained by
means of applying the trapezoid rule, that is multiplying the 13 ordinate values by the timestep
interval and coecients.)
(b) Calculate the mean power!

t (s) P (kW)
0 0.00
2 11.50
4 20.50
6 25.00
8 12.25
10 7.25
12 6.75
14 6.75
16 7.00
18 10.75
20 10.75
22 6.75
24 0.00
Table 1: Measured data
Figure 5: Power as a function of the time

Solution
(a)
Using the trapezoidal rule, the approximation of the denite integral can be calculated with the
following formula:

Z tn P + P
0 1 P1 + P2 P2 + P3 Pn−1 + Pn 
I= P (t)dt ≈ ∆t · + + + ... + ,
t0 2 2 2 2
P Pn 
0
I ≈ ∆t · + P1 + P2 + ...Pn−1 + ,
2 2
 where the Pi denotes the function P at time t = ti = i · ∆t, and ∆t is the sampling time, and we have
a total of n + 1 samples. This is the same as multiplying the data with coecients ( 21 , 1, 1, ..., 1, 12 ). The
ith coecient is denoted with ci .
In the case of this example, ∆t = 2 s.

n
X
W = ∆t ci Pi = 250.5 kJ
i=0

(b)

W 250.5 kJ
Pmean = = = 10.44 kW
T 24 s