STUDY OF THE STATIC STRESS STATE OF AN ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE GEAR GUARD UNDER ABNORMAL CONDITIONS OF MOUNTING TO THE TRACTION ENGINE

The paper objective is to study the changes in the stress state of the gear guard when the standard conditions for mounting it to the traction engine are violated. The loading of the guard was examined under standard and possible non standard conditions of guard mounting during operation. The task of the study is to identify the locations of high stress levels in the guard structure under non standard mounting conditions. Research methods: numerical and experimental methods were used to determine the resulting stress levels in the wall of the gear guard. The numerical study was carried out using CAE software for mechanical engineering CAD systems. The level of the resulting stresses was determined experimentally through strain gauging. The novelty of the work is in the study of changes in the stress state of the gear guard when the conditions of its mounting to the traction engine frame are changed. As a result of the conducted research, it was found that in the case of changing standard mounting for possible ways of abnormal mounting of the guard to the traction engine, which occur during operation of electric locomotives, there is a significant change in the stress level occurring in the guard structure. Also, as a result of the numerical study, the distribution of stress intensity fields in the guard wall was obtained, which are characterized by the localization of the highest stress values in close proximity to the mounting points of the guard.