Advanced FEM analysis of support beam of a modern tram

Aluminium carbody components are more sensible to fatigue than the corresponding steel components. Failures of such components can be very expensive, also in terms of fleet unavailability, and they can have safety implications. FEM analysis can be an useful tool in both designing carbody components and investigating their failures in order to find the right countermeasures. In this paper a structural finite element model, built in order to investigate the failure in the support of a “suspended” carbody of a modern low floor tram, is presented.. Due to the characteristics of the vehicle and the peculiar geometry of the component, a complex approach was followed in order to find the right loads and in order to achieve the desired precision in the stress field.