313

An in-service dynamic model of a diesel railcar from

operational modal analysis and finite-element
model updating
D Hanson1 , M Winton2 , R B Randall1 , R A J Ford1 , D J Thompson3 , T P Waters3 , and J Antoni4
1
Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia
2
Structural Engineering, United Group Limited Rail, Broadmeadow, Australia
3
Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, Southampton, UK
4
Laboratoire de Mechanique, Universit de Technologie de Compigne, Compigne, France
The manuscript was received on 3 August 2006 and was accepted after revision for publication on 22 February 2008.
DOI: 10.1243/09544097JRRT105

Abstract: Builders of passenger rail vehicles need methods for predicting vibrational behaviour
so that they can meet ride quality specifications. Conventional finite-element (FE) models used
for stress analysis may not be accurate enough for this because of imponderables such as the stiffness of spot-welded joints. One solution is to adjust FE models based on vibration measurements.
This model updating is now possible using commercially available software. Usually, the updating
is based on vibration tests carried out under laboratory conditions, which may produce different
results from normal operation. In this paper, two simple FE models of a railcar are updated using
vibration data obtained from a newly designed railcar under in-service conditions. Measurements were made on a railcar loaded to represent crush-loaded conditions and running down
track, with the only excitation that naturally occurring due to track roughness, engine excitation,
aerodynamic loading etc. Unlike standard laboratory vibration testing, this input excitation could
not be measured, so advanced forms of output-only analysis were required. By using these data
as input to a commercial updating package, the simple FE models have been updated and the
effectiveness of the technique assessed.
Keywords: operational modal analysis, finite-element model updating, in-service dynamic
model
1

INTRODUCTION

In late 2002, United Group Rail were awarded a

contract to build seven diesel multiple unit (DMU)
car sets, each consisting of two cars, for RailCorp
(NSW, Australia). Known as the Hunter railcar, and
shown in Fig. 1, each of the 63 tonne outer suburban
cars has a maximum operating speed of 145 km/h.
Seating capacity is 146 with standing capacity for an
additional 70. Each car in the set has one bogie powered by a 560 kW Cummins QSK19-R diesel engine
transmitted through a Voith 312bre transmission.
An important feature of the 25 m long cars is the
Corresponding

author: Department of Structural Dynamics,

Sinclair Knight Merz, 100 Christie St, St Leonards, Sydney, NSW

2065, Australia. email: dhanson@skm.com.au
JRRT105 IMechE 2008

CEM (crash energy management) system that has

sequenced components to absorb collision energy for
head-on collisions into like vehicles up to 70 km/h
impact speeds. The bogies were also fully designed and
developed by United Group Rail.
It was observed that the modal properties of the
car, estimated using an impact hammer modal test
with the car in tare condition, differed significantly
from those calculated by the detailed finite-element
(FE) model used to predict stress and crashworthiness. Although this FE model provided an accurate
prediction of the static behaviour of the car, as evidenced by a correlation with strain gauge measurements, it could not be used to predict the dynamic
behaviour of the car. It was therefore decided to
develop a simple model, which could be used in
dynamic simulations of the car for the prediction of
ride comfort etc.
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314

D Hanson, M Winton, R B Randall, R A J Ford, D J Thompson, T P Waters, and J Antoni

Fig. 1

Hunter railcar

The modal properties of a railcar, the natural frequencies, modal damping, and mode shapes, have
traditionally been obtained using experimental modal
analysis (EMA), in which the responses of the structure
to a contrived and measured input, such as impact
hammer excitation, are recorded. Techniques for EMA
have been well documented [1], but face a fundamental problem, which is that the excitation rarely represents the force distribution, magnitude, and type of
forcing the railcar will experience while in operation.
Moreover, the properties of the railcar might also be
different in service, for example because of the effects
of aerodynamic or passenger loading. One example
related to the rail vehicle described in this paper is that
the bogie suspension of the train is known to be nonlinear and so will behave differently running down the
track than when stationary in the workshop. The result
is that the modal properties estimated from EMA may
be poor estimates of the trains in-service behaviour.
Ideally, to obtain properties that apply when the
railcar is in service, EMA would be performed under
operational conditions. Unfortunately, it is not possible in this situation to measure the excitations, only the
responses, so traditional inputoutput modal analysis
techniques cannot be applied. Instead, a blind identification technique is required, so-called because it
uses only the responses. When applied to measurements obtained in service this is termed operational
modal analysis (OMA).
OMA, blind identification applied to mechanical
systems, has become increasingly popular in recent
years. New techniques have become available, which
allow the properties of a system to be identified for
the case when the system is in service, thereby ensuring that the properties identified correspond with the
working environment of the system. Some popular
techniques which are available in commercial software packages include frequency domain decomposition (FDD) [2, 3], stochastic subspace identification
(SSI) [4, 5], and Operational PolyMAX [6]. This paper
presents an application of the FDD algorithm to the
OMA of the Hunter railcar and the subsequent use of
the modal information identified by this technique.
Proc. IMechE Vol. 222 Part F: J. Rail and Rapid Transit

In this project, the modal information was used to

update a FE model to create an accurate dynamic
model of the railcar in service. Model updating
involves allowing the properties of certain elements
within the model to change in order to improve the
correlation between the modal properties of the model
and those obtained from a modal test [7, 8]. It is often
employed to correct for areas of significant uncertainty
within the model, especially the stiffness of joints. In
this paper, rather than updating the complex full car FE
model, which was intended for stress analysis, two new
and far simpler models were created, one using plate
and spring elements and the other using solid and
spring elements. Such simple models are well suited to
describe the dynamic behaviour of the car in the low
frequency range and are appropriate for simulations
of the in-service behaviour of the car.
2 THEORY
2.1

Enhanced frequency domain decomposition

The enhanced frequency domain decomposition

(EFDD) algorithm for OMA employed in this paper is
part of the Bruel & Kjaer Pulse commercial software
suite. For completeness, the EFDD technique is summarized below, but interested readers are encouraged
to refer to reference [2] for a detailed overview.
At a particular frequency , only a few modes sub()
will contribute to the response significantly, allowing
the cross power spectral density of a lightly damped
structure to be expressed as
G lm ( j) =

T
T
d k lk mk
dk lk mk
+
j k
j k
k = sub()

(1)

where G lm is the cross power spectral density between

responses at locations l and m, dk are scalar constants related to the modal participation factors, k
are the mode shapes, k are the complex resonance
frequencies, and the over bar () represents complex
conjugate. A matrix of auto and cross spectral density
functions can be decomposed at each frequency using
singular value decomposition to yield
ji ) = Ui Si UH
G(
i

(2)

where Ui is a matrix of singular vectors and Si is a

diagonal matrix of singular values at frequency i .
If only one mode is dominating at a peak in a plot
of the largest singular value then only one mode is
significant in equation (1) and the first singular vector is an estimate of the mode shape, i.e. = u 1i . A
section around this peak where this mode can be said
to dominate, i.e. where the modal assurance criteria
[1] between and the singular vectors u 1i at nearby
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In-service dynamic model of a diesel railcar

frequency bins i are above a certain threshold (say

0.8), can then be selected. Converting this section
back to the time domain by inverse Fourier transformation, the natural frequency and damping can be
determined by curve fitting the zero crossing times and
logarithmic decrement, respectively, of the resulting
autocorrelation function.
2.2

Applying the EFDD technique to a railcar

The EFDD algorithm is based on the assumption that

the system is subjected to excitation that is both frequentially and spatially white, i.e. the autospectum of
the input is not a function of frequency and each independent input has equivalent power. As an approximation, it is assumed that this generally applies to the case
of the railcar with the dominant excitation sources,
the track induced vibration, aerodynamic loading, and
engine excitation all being frequentially white in the
frequency range of interest [9], and approximately
energetically equivalent across the car body.
2.3

Using the EFDD results to update a FE model

The resonance frequencies, modal damping, and

mode shapes of the railcar have been identified using
EFDD as described above. The resonance frequencies and mode shapes were then used to update FE
models. The models in this paper were updated using
FEMTools commercial software. Generally, FE model
updating seeks to alter the properties of certain elements within a model in an iterative process in order
to improve correlation between the modal properties of the model and those of a modal test. One
popular updating technique is the penalty function
method, which is described in detail in reference [7].
In the penalty function method, the updated element
properties j+1 at each iteration are given by
j+1 = j + [STj W Sj ]1 STW (z m z j )

(3)

where j is a vector containing the values of element

properties to be updated at iteration j, S a matrix
containing the sensitivity (partial derivative) of each
element property in j to each of the modal parameters compared in the analysis, W a diagonal weighting
matrix, and z m and z j the vectors containing the measured and modelled (at iteration j) modal parameter
values, respectively.

315

measurement time was limited to 5 min due to traffic

on the line. The major sources of excitation included
the track induced vibration, engine excitation, aerodynamic loading, and on-board equipment such as the
air compressor and air conditioning unit.
The responses were sampled at 4096 Hz, to facilitate their use for further research at a later date,
but the frequency range of interest was between 0
and 50 Hz. All available accelerometer channels were
recorded simultaneously as there was insufficient time
to relocate sensors between measurements. If greater
time were available, then the measurements could
be recorded in several batches, thereby allowing for
greater spatial resolution, which would allow higher
order modes to be accurately described. So long as at
least one common reference measurement is included
in all batches, and the system does not change
between measurements, then the measurements from
each batch can be combined in post-processing as if
they were recorded simultaneously [10]. This was not
required in this analysis; however, because the spatial
resolution used in this test was sufficient to describe
all the modes of interest.
3.2

Experiment layout

The acceleration of the car was measured using 11

accelerometers, which were glued to masking tape on
the floor along one side of the car and in one opposing
corner, as represented in Fig. 2.
This test layout was chosen so as to make best use of
the 11 available measurement channels by providing
sufficient spatial resolution to describe the modes of
interest, i.e. ten measurement locations down the side
of the car, and yet also allowing the symmetric and
anti-symmetric modes to be discriminated by including a measurement in one opposing corner. The car
was assumed to deform symmetrically, with the magnitude of the unmeasured degrees of freedom (DOFs)
represented by the corresponding measured DOFs and
the phase determined by the relative motion of the two
measured DOFs on either side of the rear of the car.

3 TEST METHODOLOGY
3.1

On track test

Response measurements were recorded while the railcar was running along fully welded track at an approximately constant speed of 100 km/h. At this speed, the
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Fig. 2 Test layout showing placement of accelerometers

down one side of the car and in one opposing
corner. The front of the car is at the left
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D Hanson, M Winton, R B Randall, R A J Ford, D J Thompson, T P Waters, and J Antoni

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1

OMA results

The resonance frequencies and modal damping identified using the EFDD technique are contained in
Table 1. The mode shapes corresponding to the
in-service modes in Table 1 are represented in Fig. 5.
It is worth emphasizing that these modal properties were obtained with no measurements of the input
excitation. One consequence of this is that the mode
shapes have arbitrary scaling, but this scaling can
be recovered either experimentally [11] or from a FE
model.
4.2

Fig. 3

Accelerometer mounting arrangement

Fig. 4 Interior of the Hunter railcar during the test

showing the water containers used to simulate
passenger loading

The accelerometers were affixed to masking tape

on the floor of the car, as represented in Fig. 3. The
masking tape acts like a low pass filter, but its effective frequency range is well in excess of the natural
frequencies of the railcar included in this analysis.

Comparison of OMA and EMA results

The resonance frequencies and modal damping identified using the EFDD technique are compared in
Table 1 with those from a workshop modal test performed using impact hammer excitation on the same
vehicle but without the simulated passenger loading.
Note that the in-service resonance frequencies are
not simply obtained by lowering the resonance frequencies from the workshop test to account for the
added passenger mass. Although some modes have
decreased in frequency, others have increased and
the mode order has also changed. This interesting
phenomenon, which appears counter-intuitive, is not
without precedent in the literature [12]. In other applications, it has arisen because the passengers, and
in this case the water bottles, do not simply represent added mass, but form a springmassdamper,
system which adds DOFs, and hence modes, to the
system. Consequently, a structural mode can appear
to increase in frequency with the addition of the
passenger mass.
The rigid body modes were not identified in the
workshop modal test, possibly because they were too
low in frequency or too heavily damped to be adequately excited or measured by the impact hammer
modal test.
Table 1

Comparison of resonance frequencies and modal

damping of the Hunter railcar identified from
in-service measurements and a workshop modal
test
OMA

3.3

Simulating the effect of passengers

Measurements were made while the car was being

tested in a simulated crush loaded condition. Passengers were represented by large containers of water
placed on the seats and floor, as shown in Fig. 4, and in
the vestibule areas. This added 12 tonnes to the mass
of the car.
Proc. IMechE Vol. 222 Part F: J. Rail and Rapid Transit

EMA

Mode

Frequency
(Hz)

Damping
ratio (%)

Frequency
(Hz)

Damping
ratio (%)

Bounce
Pitch
First bending
First torsion
Second bending
Second torsion

1.3
1.5
6.0
13
14
18

8.2
16
13
1.2
3.2
1.8

8.0
3.7
3.6
3.4

6.7
9.8
18
15

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In-service dynamic model of a diesel railcar

Fig. 5

317

Mode shapes of the Hunter railcar identified from in-service measurements: (L to R, T to B)

bounce, pitch, first bending, first torsion, second torsion, and second bending

and then using FEMTools commercial software on

the basis of the OMA natural frequencies and modeshapes. The spring elements were updated in the same
manner, also using the known mass of the railcar.
The resonance frequencies of the updated model are
compared with those of the railcar in Table 2.
The percentage errors between the resonances of
the updated FE model and the railcar are all relatively small, especially when compared with the 3 dB
bandwidth of the modes.
Fig. 6

4.3
4.3.1

Simple FE model of the railcar using plate and

spring elements

Table 2

FE model updating

Comparison of resonance frequencies from the

updated FE model and the in-service measurements of the Hunter railcar
Frequency

Plate model

The carbody was modelled using simple plate elements and the suspension was represented by vertical
one DOF spring elements, as depicted in Fig. 6.
The car body was divided into nine sections and the
plate thickness of these sections, their elastic moduli, and Poissons ratio were first updated manually,
JRRT105 IMechE 2008

Mode

FEA

OMA

% Difference

MAC (%)

Bounce
Pitch
First bending
First torsion
Second bending
Second torsion

1.3
1.5
5.5
12
13
17

1.3
1.5
6.0
13
14
18

2.4
3.2
7.1
6.4
5.1
3.8

99.0
99.0
82.0
73.0
37.0
59.0

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D Hanson, M Winton, R B Randall, R A J Ford, D J Thompson, T P Waters, and J Antoni

Fig. 7

Comparison of the modes shapes of the updated FE model (solid) and the Hunter railcar
(line): (L to R, T to B) bounce, pitch, first bending, first torsion, second torsion, and second
bending

The mode shapes of the updated FE model and

the railcar are compared using the modal assurance
criterion (MAC), which is a measure of the correlation
between two mode shapes [1]. MAC is expressed as a
percentage in Table 2, where 100 per cent represents
perfect correlation and 0 per cent no correlation, and it
can be seen that the mode shapes of the model correlate well with those of the railcar, except for the second
torsional and bending modes, as explained below.
The mode shapes of the FE model are compared with
those of the railcar in Fig. 7.
Although not evident from the snapshots in Fig. 7,
some of the in-service mode shapes are complex,
which cannot be represented in such a simple FE
model. Therefore, although there is a close agreement between the resonance frequencies, the MAC
between the measured and modelled mode shapes
for the highly complex second-torsional mode and
slightly complex second bending mode, is reduced.
This may lead to slightly conservative predictions from
the model in dynamic simulations, i.e. overestimating
the level of vibration, and is therefore not a significant
problem.
Interestingly, the rolling mode, which occurred at
2 Hz in the FE model, was not detected in the OMA.
In practice, the lateral and roll modes in passenger
rail cars are often coupled. The two coupled motions
create an upper and lower sway mode as opposed to
a conventional (largely uncoupled) roll mode as might
occur in say a road car. The spring elements in the FE
ananlysis (FEA) would naturally enable a roll mode but
Proc. IMechE Vol. 222 Part F: J. Rail and Rapid Transit

not a lateral mode. Therefore, due to its absence from

the OMA results, the roll mode has been excluded from
the above analysis.
4.3.2

Three-dimensional model

The simple plate model described above was shown

to represent the vertical displacement of the railcar,
as measured in the OMA, quite well. The railcar also
exhibits significant lateral vibration, which cannot
be represented in such a simple model. In order to
represent better the dynamics of the railcar, a simple three-dimensional model, formed of ten-nodded
tetrahedral solid elements, was also updated. This
model is depicted in Fig. 8.

Fig. 8

Simple FE model of the railcar using solid and

spring elements
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In-service dynamic model of a diesel railcar

Table 3

Comparison of resonance frequencies from the

second updated FE model and the in-service
measurements of the Hunter railcar
Frequency

Mode

FEA

OMA

Bounce
Pitch
First bending
First torsion
Second bending
Second torsion

1.0
1.6
6.0
12
13
13

1.3
1.5
6.0
13
14
18

% Difference
21
5.5
0
7.2
3.7
32

MAC (%)
94
74
79
55
56
61

The model was divided into three sections, representing the floor, walls, and roof of the railcar. The
density and elastic moduli of these sections, and the
stiffness of the springs, were updated as for the plate
model. The modal properties of the updated model are
compared with those of the railcar in Table 3.
The percentage error between the resonances of
the updated FE model and the railcar are all relatively small, with the exception of the bounce and
second bending modes. The absolute error of the predicted bounce mode frequency is very small and would

Fig. 9

319

therefore not pose a significant problem for the use of

the model in simulations. The prediction of the second bending mode frequency is significantly in error
however and so the model may have to be reduced to
exclude this mode and to limit its application to the
frequency range of the first-torsional mode.
The mode shapes of the updated FE model and the
railcar are again compared using the MAC. It can be
seen that the mode shapes of the model correlate well
with those of the railcar, as also shown in Fig. 9.
The second-torsional mode can be seen to exhibit
some squashing, which could be rectified by further
refinement of the model, such as the inclusion of cross
bracing and the front and rear structure of the car.
This mode, however, like all the others shown above,
represents the floor displacement of the car quite well
and so would still be useful for the prediction of ride
comfort.
Unlike the plate model, the lateral modes including the upper and lower sway modes mentioned
above, were all described by the solid model. These
have not been included in the update as the corresponding lateral DOF were not measured in the OMA.
If estimates of the lateral modes were obtained, which

Comparison of the modes shapes of the second updated FE model (solid) and the Hunter
railcar (line): (L to R, T to B) bounce, pitch, first bending, first torsion, second torsion, and
second bending

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320

D Hanson, M Winton, R B Randall, R A J Ford, D J Thompson, T P Waters, and J Antoni

would require only a simple extension to the on-track

test, the model could be further refined using the same
process and would therefore provide a more accurate dynamic model of the railcar than that already
obtained.
5

CONCLUSIONS

This paper reported on the development of simple FE

models, which could be used to predict the dynamic
behaviour of a railcar. Two models were employed; a
simple plate and spring element model, which considered only the vertical modes, and a solid model, which
also considered the lateral modes. The properties of
these models were updated to improve the correlation
between the modal properties of the model and those
of the car in service. These in-service modal properties were estimated using operational modal analysis
in which the responses of the car to in-service excitations were measured. The models were, therefore, able
to predict the behaviour of the car in-service, which
was shown to differ significantly from the behaviour
of the unloaded and stationary car, the condition in
which a traditional modal test is performed.
The paper demonstrated that, when combined with
the powerful tools of the FE model updating and operational modal analysis, even simple models can be
made to represent accurately the in-service behaviour
of a modern railcar. Such models could be applied in
dynamic simulations or even modification prediction
for addressing vibration problems, which are often not
evident until the railcar is in service.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

10

11

12

APPENDIX
Notation
dk

The authors would like to thank Rebecca Griffiths,

Grant Thompson, Paul Ferguson, Dominic Shields,
David Williams, Craig Palmer, Kevin Smith, and Paul
Elliot of United Group Limited Rail, and Wee Lee Chia
and Russell Overhall of UNSW, for their assistance with
the experimental phase of this work.
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G
Si
S
u 1i
Ui
W
zj
zm
k
k
j

scalar constants related to modal

participation factors
cross spectral density of response
measurements
matrix of response auto and cross spectral
density functions
matrix of singular values at frequency i
sensitivity matrix in the finite element model
updating process
first singular vector at frequency bin i
matrix of singular vectors at frequency i
diagonal weighting matrix
vector of modelled modal parameters at
iteration j
vector of measured modal parameters
resonance frequencies of the railcar
mode shapes of the railcar
vector of element properties to be updated at
iteration j
circular frequency
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