PSI - Issue 81

Juraj Gerlici et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 81 (2026) 66–72

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et al. (2019), this can be explained by the peculiarities of the impact of operational loads on the wagon body, as well as loading and unloading operations. This results in the shell deformation, its rupture, etc. As stated by Semenov et al. (2022), such damage not only leads to unscheduled repairs of wagons, additional costs for their maintenance, but also threatens traffic safety. Therefore, there is a need to create and implement solutions aimed at improving the strength of the body wall shell of open wagons in operation. 2. Analysis of recent research and publications An analysis of existing scientific publications was conducted to identify the current state of the issue of ensuring the strength of the side walls of the open wagon body. Thus, it is proposed by Vatilua et al (2023) to use corrugations that pass behind the lower part of the sheet to ensure the strength of the body walls, namely at a height of 1/3 from the lower strapping. The strength calculations performed proved the feasibility of such an improvement. However, the authors focused only on strengthening the lower part of the wall sheet, and not on the entire sheet as a whole. It is proposed in a publication by Lee et al. (2016) to carry out the structural optimization to increase the rigidity of the open wagon body and reduce its packaging. The possibility of using aluminum for the manufacture of body components is considered. The stages of the proposed optimization are highlighted. The feasibility of using such an approach for the freight wagon body is proven. However, the disadvantage of the specified implementation is the high cost, which limits the serial production of cars, considering the specified optimization. A similar drawback is also found in work created by Płaczek et al. (2016), where the authors propose the use of removable sandwich panels as components of an open wagon body. The authors highlight the advantages and prospects of such an implementation. However, it is considered not from the point of view of strength, but rather from the point of view of improving the maintenance and repair of wagons. The work written by Vatulia et al. (2023a, 2023b) also proposes the use of sandwich panels to improve the strength of the wagon wall sheets. It is proven that such an implementation allows reducing the impact of dynamic loads on the wagon structure, and accordingly contributes to improving its strength in operation. However, the authors limited the research to considering this implementation on a container. In addition, such an improvement requires significant capital investment for implementation. The authors Lee et al. (2018) propose improving the strength of the wagon body by using magnesium alloys for the manufacture of its components. The justification for this decision is given. It is worth saying that such an implementation certainly provides a reduction in the load on the body in operation but is quite expensive. The feasibility of using new materials to improve the strength of the wagon body is also proposed in the publication by Zaynitdinov et al. (2020). At the same time, the possibility of introducing polymer composite materials for the manufacture of the most loaded body components was considered. This solution has experimental justification. However, it requires significant capital investments at the implementation stage. The analysis of literary sources allows us to note that the issue of improving the configuration of an open wagon wall sheets has not been given due attention. This requires research in this direction. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to study the feasibility of using corrugated sheets as the wall cladding of the body of an open wagon. The tasks were solved for this purpose: • To investigate the options for possible execution of corrugations in the open wagon body wall sheets and determine their most rational option; • To calculate the strength of the open wagon body with wall sheets formed by corrugations. 3. Materials and research methods It is proposed to manufacture the walls of the open wagon body in a form of a corrugated sheet to increase the strength of the sheets. Possible options for the execution of corrugations are considered (Fig. 1), and it is concluded that the most rational is to manufacture the sheets with rectangular corrugations. This is explained by the fact that such corrugations have a better moment of resistance compared to others.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 1. Options of the corrugated sheets: (a) α = 30°; (b ) α = 45°; (c ) α = 60°; (d ) α = 90° .