THE TILTING TRAINS



ABSTRACT

With the invention of new technologies in various features of the railway transportation the human beings are more benefited.
One of the technology that the railway engineers thinking is about the
“THE TILTING TRAINS”, which provide the passengers and the goods to reach the destination with a minimum time.
The technology involved in TILTING TRAIN is that whenever the trains pass over the curves and turnings of the railway tracks the compartments of the train is tilted to a certain angle by which the trains can travel with no reduction in speed.
By adopting this technology of TILTING TRAINS the fuel consumed by the trains can be saved ,the passengers can feel comfort and also time can be saved.

INTRODUCTION

Train is a mass transporter, which transports humans and goods from one place to another place. We have trains, which run by diesel and electricity. Among goods and passenger trains the most concerned one is passenger trains.
The passenger train should move quickly with high speeds. The rail road will not be always straight it should pass through curves and turns. We all know that if you are driving in your car and you take a turning at speed you feel centrifugal forces. Well it is no different from trains, if a train takes a turning at speeds centrifugal forces will be experienced.
The major problem for any trains is to pass over the curves and turns of the railroads. If the train moves with the same speed at the curves and turns the train may slip from the track, so the speed of the train will be slowdown drastically to avoid slip.
This results in wastage of fuel and in turn reduces the speed of the train, which is main consideration for the passenger trains. One of the solution found to avoid this situation is the tilting trains.
PROBLEMS WITH CORNERS
We all know that if your driving in your car and you take a corner at speed you feel centrifugal forces. Well it is no different from trains; if a train takes a corner at speed then centrifugal forces come in. Often train operating companies face a decision for building a high speed railway transport system... they can either invest money in the train to make it tilt but use existing railway lines, or they invest money in a new railway but don't need to spend money on expensive tilting mechanisms. This is why TGV, and ICE and bullet trains do not tilt, because they have their own dedicated high speed railway lines where curves are built with very high radii.
It is worth pointing out that the centrifugal force is a function of v2/r where v is the velocity and r is the radius. This means if you double the velocity, you quadruple the centrifugal force. Similarly, if you want to triple the velocity but keep the centrifugal force the same, you must increase the radius by a factor of nine! Something not always possible. This is why even apparently gentle curves can be much more of a problem with high speeds than one might thing, because the force rises with the square of velocity.

WHAT IS TILTING TRAIN ?

Tilting train consists of a tilting mechanism that enables increased speed on regular tracks.
In the upper part of the tilting trains that is in which the passengers are seated can be tilted sideways. During the motion of the train if the train has to steer to left in a left turning the coaches of the train will be tilted to the left in order to compensate the centrifugal push to the right and conversely during the right turn.
These trains are constructed such that inertial forces which cause the tilting can be controlled by a computer.
If the trains travel at speeds more than the specified speeds at the turnings of the railway tracks their will be centrifugal forces acting on the train. Due to these centrifugal forces the train may slip and push out of the tracks. But in case of tilting trains which will not happen, because of the reason that centrifugal forces will be compensated by tilting mechanism.

WHY TILTING HELPS?

When sitting on a corner going at speed there are two forces acting on you, gravitational force and the centrifugal force which is accelerating you into the corner. In physics when two forces act, then this causes a resultant force. The resultant force will push you into your seat and to the side. However if the train is tilting, then the normal contact force of you on your seat will be the same as the resultant force you are experiencing. This means as far as the passenger is concerned he or she is just being pulled into his or her seat, and he or she is used to that so no discomfort is felt.
This is true also of aero planes, commercial planes tilt a large amount, up to 30 degrees when going around corners in some cases to cater for passenger comfort. As the tilting of the aero plane is to get rid of the problem of centrifugal forces, or more accurately to disguised the centrifugal forces as a part of gravity as far as the passengers are concerned. The only way you know if the aero plane is tilting is to look out of the window.
Trains that tilt can go up to 25% to 40% faster around curves than conventional trains without upsetting the passengers, and as mentioned before this can significantly increase average speeds and cut journey times.