This book presents several computational multibody system formulations and
discusses their computer implementation. The computational algorithms based on
these general formulations can be used to develop general- and special-purpose
railroad vehicle computer programs for use in the analysis of railroad vehicle systems,
including the study of derailment and accident scenarios, design issues, and
performance evaluation. The book focuses on the development of fully nonlinear
formulations, supported by an explanation of the limitations of the linearized formulations
that are frequently used in the analysis of railroad vehicle systems.
This book is designed for an introductory course on railroad vehicle dynamics
that is suitable for senior undergraduate and first-year graduate students. The students
are expected to have knowledge of dynamics at the intermediate level and also have
knowledge of basic vector and matrix algebra. This book can also be used as a
reference by researchers and practicing engineers, who commonly use generalpurpose
multibody system computer programs in the analysis, design, and performance
evaluation of railroad vehicle systems. In this book, it is assumed that the
components of the railroad vehicle system that have distributed inertia are rigid
bodies; the generalization of the presented formulations to the case of flexible body
dynamics is straightforward, as described in previous publications by the authors of
this book.