Rail vehicle having a concealed undercarriage

Abstract

A rail vehicle includes a concealed undercarriage, particularly a bogie, wherein the covering or fairing comprises at least side elements that are arranged along the rail vehicle on the sides of the undercarriage and a bottom element that is arranged on the underside of the undercarriage, where the side elements are fixedly connected to the carriage body of the rail vehicle, the bottom element is fixedly connected to the undercarriage, and a gap is provided between the bottom element on one side and the side elements on the other side, and where the gap provides a distance between the wheels of the undercarriage and the bottom element on one side and the side elements on the other side, both in the fully turned and in the partially turned state of the undercarriage.

Claims

1. A rail vehicle having a concealed undercarriage, comprising: a fairing including side elements arranged along the rail vehicle on sides of the undercarriage and fixedly connected to a car body of the rail vehicle; and a bottom element arranged on an underside of the undercarriage and fixedly connected to the undercarriage, and wherein a gap is provided between the bottom element and the side elements respectively, said gap ensuring a clearance between wheels of the undercarriage and (i) the bottom element and (ii) the side elements when the undercarriage is at least one of partially turned and fully turned; and wherein the bottom element extends in a transverse direction of the undercarriage as far as an inside of the wheels.

2. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gap is substantially outside the wheels.

3. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gap is located in a wind shadow of the wheels.

4. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the gap is located in a wind shadow of the wheels.

5. The rail vehicle as claimed claim 1, wherein, when the undercarriage is a bogie, a lower edge of the side elements in longitudinal regions which are closer to an axis of rotation of the bogie extends further towards the bottom element than the lower edge in longitudinal regions which are further from the axis of rotation.

6. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the side elements have convex bulges for accommodating at least one of (i) spring elements and (ii) damping elements.

7. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein side elements below the car body are curved inwards towards the bottom element.

8. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the bottom element includes recesses for the wheels.

9. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the bottom element comprises a substantially flat plate.

10. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the bottom element includes at least one opening through which components project.

11. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 10, wherein edges of the opening are formed aerodynamically flush with the components.

12. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the fairing comprises a transition element which is fixedly connected to the car body and connects the bottom element to the car body fairing in an aerodynamically flush manner.

13. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 12, wherein the transition element is wider, on a side which faces towards the bottom element, than the bottom element.

14. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the bottom element includes, at its ends, a curved longitudinal gap relative to the car body fairing, said gap having a width which is virtually unchanged when the concealed under carriage turns.

15. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 14, wherein the concealed undercarriage comprises a bogie.

16. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 14, wherein said curved longitudinal gap relative to the car body fairing comprises a transition element.

17. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the side element is formed to extend downwards to an extent so as to cover at least half of a wheel surface of the undercarriage when viewed from the side.

18. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the concealed undercarriage comprises a bogie.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) In order to explain the invention further, reference is made in the following part of the description to the figures, from which further advantageous embodiments, details and developments of the invention may be derived, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a perspective view from the side and below of a concealed undercarriage in accordance with the invention;

(3) FIG. 2 shows a side view of the undercarriage of FIG. 1;

(4) FIG. 3 shows the fairing parts of FIGS. 1 and 2;

(5) FIG. 4 shows a perspective view from behind and below of a concealed undercarriage in accordance with the invention; and

(6) FIG. 5 shows a bottom view of a concealed undercarriage in accordance with the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

(7) FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view from the side and below of a concealed undercarriage. Here, a side element 1, a bottom element 3 configured as a flat bottom plate, and two transition elements 6 can be seen, and which conceal the undercarriage that is formed as a bogie. The side element 1 on the rear side of the undercarriage is not visible here. Of the undercarriage, only the wheels 5 are partially visible.

(8) Apart from the rectangular recesses 7 on its straight longitudinal edges and the arc-shaped rounding off at its ends, the bottom element 3 is essentially rectangular. The transition elements 6 adjoin the bottom element 3 on both sides, only an arc-shaped narrow gap being present between the arc-shaped ends of the bottom element 3 and the likewise arc-shaped transition element 6.

(9) In FIG. 2, where a further part of the undercarriage 2 is visible as a result of omitting the car body and its fairing, it can be seen that the lower contour of the bottom element 3 is continued via the arc-shaped gap in the lower contour of the transition element 6 without any offset in a vertical direction. The lower contour of the transition element 6 then rises in the form of a ramp, before merging as smoothly as possible into the underbody (not shown) of the car body.

(10) The lower contour of the side element 1 rises in the region of the wheels 5 as the distance increases from the axis of rotation of the bogie, and after the wheels 5 drops back down to the same height as between the wheels 5 of a side. The car body would cover a further part of the wheels 5 above the wheel axles, in a vertical direction, while the side elements 1 arranged on the car body then cover a region extending below the wheel axles of the wheels 5. The side element 1 therefore extends so far downwards that it (with the fairing of the car body which is not shown here) covers more than half of the surface area of the two wheels 5 on this side of the undercarriage 2.

(11) Only the fairing parts 1, 3 and 6 from FIGS. 1 and 2 are illustrated in FIG. 3. Here, it is readily apparent that the lower edge of the side elements 1 extends further towards the bottom element 3 at its center than in the region of the recesses 7 for the wheels 5. The width of the gap between the side element 1 and the bottom element 3 increases slowly from the center of the bottom element 3 and then decreases rapidly again after the recess 8 to approximately its measurement at the center of the bottom element 3. This measurement is formed as small as possible in structural terms. However, it must nonetheless allow the transverse movements of the bogie.

(12) In the region of the wheel axles, the bottom element 3 here has an opening 4 in each case, through which a component can project downwards beyond the bottom element 3. The transition from the underside of the bottom element 3 to this component is ideally set to be as gradual as possible, in order to prevent the formation of turbulence here.

(13) It can also be seen that the bottom element 3 has at its ends a curved longitudinal gap relative to the car body fairing, i.e., the transition element 6, where the gap has a width that is virtually unchanged when the bogie turns, specifically because both the bottom element 3 at its longitudinal ends and the transition elements 6 at their sides facing the bottom element 3 are formed to be arc-shaped (concentric to the axis of rotation of the bogie) here.

(14) FIG. 4 illustrates a perspective view from behind and below of the concealed undercarriage. Here, it is apparent the width of the transition element 6 decreases with distance from the bottom element 3, and the side elements 1 go further inwards correspondingly to adjoin the transition elements 6 directly at their sides. The gaps 8 between the bottom element 3 (and the wheels 5) and the side elements 1 widen in the direction of travel: the gap 8 is narrower between the wheels 5 of different wheel axles than in the longitudinal region of the wheels 5. Both gaps 8 (covering all four wheels 5) therefore together form an X-shaped layout.

(15) FIG. 5 again illustrates the concealed undercarriage in a bottom view, and still without the car body.

(16) Thus, while there have been shown, described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the devices illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.