Controlling a Rail Vehicle with Independently-Rotating Wheels

A conventional rail vehicle has a purely mechanical suspension consisting of springs and dampers. Their performance is determined mainly by spring stiffnesses, damper coefficients and the sprung and unsprung masses. As a result, the guidance forces generated at the wheel-rail contact are not optimised for a particular track curvature or profile. This leads to a contradictory requirement for a stiff suspension for guidance and a softer suspension for steering, and conventional vehicles have to be designed for a wide range of operating regimes. Active suspensions to influence the running gear of a rail vehicle have been studied widely and proposed as a solution to overcoming the inherent suspension design conflict between stability and guidance. Some of this research has suggested that an active vehicle with independently-rotating wheels (IRWs) will provide the best solution in terms of vehicle performance and lower actuation requirements. This paper takes this research further by designing and implementing a robust controller for IRWs on a multi-body physics simulation (MBS) model of a British Rail Class 230 D-train with modified bogies.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Web
  • Features: References;
  • Pagination: pp 31-39
  • Monograph Title: Advances in Dynamics of Vehicles on Roads and Tracks: Proceedings of the 26th Symposium of the International Association of Vehicle System Dynamics, IAVSD 2019, August 12-16, 2019, Gothenburg, Sweden
  • Serial:

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01900558
  • Record Type: Publication
  • ISBN: 9783030380762
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Nov 28 2023 10:25AM