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Vampire Virtual User Event - 14 June 2022

A big thank you to all those who presented at and attended our second Vampire Virtual User Event. It was another great success and good to see such a large cross-section of the Vampire community. In the sections below, you can find the list of presentations, recordings of each presentation and pdf copies of the slides where applicable. Presentations from previous events can be found here.

Part 1 - Introduction and Welcome

Daniel Firth, Vampire Product Manager, and Edward Garner, Engineer, AtkinsRéalis

Daniel Firth and Edward Garner introduce the event, the Vampire technical and support team, our Vision for Vampire and our continued commitment to the development and support of Vampire and its users.

To download the slides for this presentation please click here.

Part 2 - Introduction to Vampire Pro 8.00, Plus Future Developments

Ian Hills, Vampire Technical Lead, and Alan Minnis, Principal Consultant, AtkinsRéalis

Ian Hills and Alan Minnis introduce Vampire Pro 8.00; the next major release of Vampire Pro from AtkinsRéalis. Version 8.00 debuts a new additional Vampire creep law that solves the contact solution in-line rather than through pre-calculated tables. This new creep law allows for more accurate simulation of complex, dynamically varying wheel-rail problems, such as S&C and tight transitions. This accounts more fully for track gauge changes, changing rail profiles, wheelset angle of attack, wheel load and other variables. Ian and Alan also introduce future planned developments such as Cloud Licensing, the integration of CONTACT in Vampire, conversion of Line Elements and look to the future for customer requirements.

To download the slides for this presentation please click here.

Part 3 - Vampire on London Underground: A Practical Perspective

Andy Vickerstaff, Principal Engineering Leader - Track Components and Configuration, Transport for London

Vampire has become a standard part of the design process at London Underground prior to track renewals, and as a tool in the research and development areas of rolling contact fatigue and corrugation. In this presentation, Andy Vickerstaff provides a practical perspective of how Vampire Pro is used on London Underground. This presentation describes a number of projects in which Vampire has been used on London Underground including the renewal of the switch involved in the derailment at Camden Town, the development of LU56V as a flat bottom design (which can be installed on a bullhead footprint) and changes to check rail standards. It focuses on how Vampire has been used to develop practical solutions to unique issues which are encountered on the world’s oldest underground railway.

To download the slides for this presentation please click here.

Part 4 - Optimising suspension parameters using genetic algorithms in MATLAB-Vampire co-simulation

Professor Gareth Tucker, Institute of Railway Research, University of Huddersfield

The design of railway suspension systems often involves compromise between different competing requirements such as curving and stability performance. This presentation introduces a novel approach to designing the suspension system as a network of elements using 'Network Synthesis' including the optimisation of network layout and suspension component values (stiffness, damping and inertances). The concept of genetic algorithms, cost functions and particle swarm optimisation in order to meet a range of performance criteria is introduced. This approach was used to develop a new design of rubber/hydraulic radial arm bush with improved lifetime cost savings. The presentation also introduces the concept of inerters, how they can be incorporated into rail vehicle suspension design, how they can be modelled in Vampire and how Vampire can be used in co-simulation by calling it in a loop from an external program such as Matlab.

To download the slides for this presentation please click here.

Part 5 - Modelling of Coupler Angling though Multiple Vehicle Models

Peter Klauser, Vehicle Dynamics Group LLC

Peter Klauser presents a paper on modelling vehicle response under coupler angling conditions. The applications are two-fold: First, simply modelling coupler angling to determine if excessive angling occurs for a given track layout; Second, to model vehicle response under acceptable angling conditions which, when combined with in-train forces, result in derailment risk. Peter provides examples of coupler angling applications, theoretical considerations, the efficient set up of multiple vehicle models, options for inter-car modelling and modelling of coupler alignment control.

To download the slides for this presentation please click here.

Part 6 - Effect of Misaligned Wheelsets on Safety and Wear for Freight Rail Vehicles with Vampire

Paola Gonzalez Ramos, Ph.D & Pedro Corrêa, M.Sc., UNICAMP

A loaded GDE rail car with metric gauge and a loaded GDT with large gauge were built on the software Vampire. The dynamic behaviour running on tangent and curve track was compared. The objective of this work is to determine the effect on safety, based on the Y/Q parameter, and wheel wear, in terms of Tγ, due to yaw misaligned wheelsets. The simulation features the same track for both cars, with FRA-4 rail related lateral and vertical irregularities and 6 curves with 860 m of radius each. The original results with aligned wheelsets show lower Y/Q and Tγ for GDE during curving and similar behaviour during irregularities, while the misaligned results show significantly higher wear on both cars in curves where the wheelsets are counter steered and higher Y/Q for both cars, although remaining inside safety levels.

To download the full unabreviated version of Peter Kauser's presentation on Modelling Switches and Crossings please click here.

Part 7 - How to Model Offset Wagon Loads in Vampire

Owen Evans, Principal Engineer, AtkinsRéalis

Owen Evans explains how to override the automatic static load calculation in Vampire. He goes on to explain how to use this feature to model wagons with offset payloads as required for the delta Q/Q assessment of container wagons in the latest version of British Railway Group Standard GMRT2141. He also briefly outlines how to automate the creation of models with different payloads.

To download the slides for this presentation please click here.

Part 8 - Rail Profile Evolution with Vampire-in-Loop: Designing Better Rail Profiles

Ankur Ashtekar, Ph.D., VP - Product Management and Customer Success, Sentient Science

While the scope and budget for rail maintenance is ever under pressure, the increasing costs of rail replacements make it critical to adopt a precision maintenance outlook, optimising every step along the way, ensuring the limited resources are utilised in a planned preventative maintenance instead of unplanned and expensive corrective maintenance. Designing optimum rail profiles and templates has been one such effective approach in optimising preventative rail grinding. However, the tools available to the experienced rail profile designers only provide a snapshot of rail contact patches, which are continuously changing with evolution of rail profile and traffic conditions over the life of the rail. In this case study, Ankur Ashtekar of Sentient Science examines how Vampire can be used in a loop along with advanced CONTACT, wear, and grinding models to empower rail profile designers and grinding experts to extend the safe and useful life of the rail.

To download the slides for this presentation please click here.

Part 9 - Modelling a Vehicle to Vehicle Collision in Vampire

Philip Rogers, Technical Director - Rolling Stock Technical Services, AtkinsRéalis

Phil Rogers demonstrates how the Vampire Longitudinal Dynamics facility can be used to simulate extreme dynamic cases such as the collision of two trains. Two different trains were created inside a single Vampire model and a simulation was created of the rear train accelerating and colliding with a slow speed train travelling in the same direction. The simulated collision resulted in a derailment of the rear train in a similar manner to that which occurred in a real life incident on which the scenario and models were approximately based.

To download the slides for this presentation please click here.

Part 10 - Using projects in Vampire Pro

Alan Minnis, Principal Consultant, AtkinsRéalis

Projects and project trees are potentially an under utilised part of Vampire Pro. Alan Minnis from AtkinsRéalis introduces the concept of projects and project trees in Vampire Pro which allow the easy management of complex sets of differing simulations and their dependant files for a specific project. Projects package up all the necessary files used in simulations and enable them to be viewed in a simple customisable project tree. The project keeps track of when files have changed or been updated, makes it easy to see which simulations have been affected by changes and allows easy re-running of simulations. In addition, projects can be archived along with all their dependencies making it easy to send a project to another user guaranteeing that all the links work in the new location.

Part 11 - Final Summary

Ian Hills, Vampire Technical Lead, AtkinsRéalis

Final round up of the event and thanks by Ian Hills the Technical Lead for Vampire

To download the slides for this presentation please click here.