kinematic envelope

kinematic envelope (plural kinematic envelopes)

1. (rail transport) The outline of the space occupied by a rail vehicle when in motion, including the effects of tilt, sway, track cant, etc.
   • 1992, Institution of Civil Engineers, R.A. Vickers, editor, Cost-effective maintenance of railway track: proceedings of the conference Cost-effective maintenance of railway track organized by the Institution of Civil Engineers and held in London on 25-26 June 1992‎, →ISBN, page 84:

     Travers Morgan Railways recognized this fact in 1990 and have developed a computerized technique to derive the true kinematic enveleope for indivdual rolling stock using basic vehicle parameters.

   • 1994, Institution of Civil Engineers, Charles Penny, editor, Channel Tunnel transport system: proceedings of the conference organized by the Institution of Civil Engineers and held in London on 4-5 October 1994‎, published 1996, →ISBN, page 85:

     However, in one respect Eurostar did condition the kinematic enveleope of Le Shuttle. […] The smaller Eurostar trains needed a lower step to overcome the height and width differential between the doorway and the walkway. This lower step became a significant element in determining the kinematic enveleope for the Shuttle trains, because of the limited clearance which resulted from its introduction into tunnel design.

   • 2006, Simon Iwnicki, Handbook of Railway Vehicle Dynamics‎, →ISBN, page 184:

     A publication known as “Design Guide BaSS 501” provided a methodology wherby the kinematic enveleope of a vehicle (the space required by a given vehicle, moving at speed) at a specific location could be manually calculated from a number of input parameters.

• loading gauge
• structure gauge