Active yaw damper for the improvement of railway vehicle stability and curving performances: simulations and experimental results

Abstract

To further increase passenger train comfort and handling performances, a mechatronic approach to the design of railway vehicles is necessary. In fact, active systems on board a railway vehicle allow to push design barriers beyond those encountered with just passive systems. The article deals with the development of an electro-mechanical actuator to improve the running behaviour of a railway vehicle, both in straight track and curve. The main components of the active system are a brushless motor and a mechanical transmission, used to apply a longitudinal force between the carbody and the bogie of the vehicle. The actuator is operated in force control. Different control strategies were developed for straight track running, where the aim is to increase the vehicle critical speed, and for curve negotiation, where the goal is to reduce the maximum values of track shift forces. A mathematical model of the railway vehicle incorporating the active control device has been developed and used to optimise control strategies and hardware set-up of the active device and to estimate the increase in operating performances with respect to a conventional passive vehicle. The active control device has then been mounted on an ETR470 railway vehicle, and its performances have been evaluated during in-line tests in both straight and curved tracks

Analytical Research of Yaw Damper Damping Matching for High-speed Train

“…1 如何提高高速客车动力学性能的三大指标：运 动稳定性、运行平稳性和曲线通过能力，是高速客 车研制的关键 [1] 。抗蛇行减振器作为高速客车转向 架系统的重要组成部件之一，对转向架的蛇行运动 稳定性和车辆的曲线通过性能具有重要的影响 [2][3][4][5] ， 然而在转向架设计中，为了兼顾转向架蛇行运动稳 定性和车辆曲线通过性能，抗蛇行减振器阻尼参数 法，大都是利用多体动力学仿真软件对轨道车辆的 蛇行运动稳定性和曲线通过性能进行研究 [6][7][8] ， 进而 对抗蛇行减振器的阻尼系数进行设计，但抗蛇行减 振器的初始阻尼参数值往往是未知的，因此这种方 法计算量太大，耗时耗力。虽然也有学者利用常系 数线性微分方程组特征值判稳法 [9][10] 和数值积分方 法 [11][12][13] 对轨道车辆转向架系统的蛇行运动稳定性进 行分析，利用转向架回转阻力矩测试试验台对轨道 车辆的曲线通过性进行分析 [14][15][16][17] [18] ，因此，对于 A 轮，其轮心的纵向 …”

“…With a practical example of high-speed train, the optimal damping coefficient of yaw damper is designed and validated by simulation. The results show that the damping of yaw damper designed can make vehicle have good running stability and curving behaviors, thus, the optimal damping matching theory and design method of yaw damper for high-speed train is correct.Key words：high-speed train；yaw damper；optimal damping coefficient；hunting stability；curving performance；analytical calculation 0 前言 1 如何提高高速客车动力学性能的三大指标：运 动稳定性、运行平稳性和曲线通过能力，是高速客 车研制的关键[1] 。抗蛇行减振器作为高速客车转向 架系统的重要组成部件之一，对转向架的蛇行运动 稳定性和车辆的曲线通过性能具有重要的影响 [2][3][4][5] …”

Parametric simulation study of traction curving of three axle steering bogie designs

“…Achieving ideal steering is a relatively simple problem when compared with perfect steering, which requires additionally axle warp angles to neutralise lateral loads with lateral creep forces. Current active steering designs under development use either secondary yaw control [24], that only controls bogie rotation, or an actuated solid wheelset [20,23] that controls steering angle. Research papers have also investigated actuated independently rotating wheels and directly steered wheels [19,20].…”

“…Research on active steering has focused on actuated wheelsets [23] with some work on secondary yaw activation [24] or theoretic capabilities of independent wheel designs [20]. Most steering bogie research has focused on high speed design and consequentially ignored the difficulties of high traction.…”

Control Alternatives for Yaw Actuated Force Steered Bogies

“…Research on active steering has focused on actuated wheelset yaw (Schneider R., Himmelstein G., 2004) and secondary yaw activation (Braghin F., et. al.…”