Bilinear Robust Control for Vertical Vibration in Railway Vehicle with Semi-Active Suspensions

Abstract

It is well known that the vibration control problem for automobiles and railway vehicles with semi-active suspensions is classified as a control problem in a bilinear system. Bullet trains and railway vehicles have lighter body in order to improve acceleration; these vibrations in the body are easily induced by various disturbances due to rigid and elastic dynamics. Currently, passive dampers such as air suspensions and axle springs are installed on railway vehicle trucks as countermeasures for such vibrations. This study presents an effective controller, based on the H ∞ theory, for vibration suppression in railway vehicles and describes a method of synthesizing this robust controller by considering unstructured and structured uncertainties that are applicable to a bilinear system. The performance of the proposed controller and its robustness toward uncertainties are examined by numerical calculations that simulate a railway vehicle subjected to disturbances due to vertical uneven railway tracks, the variations in its mass due to boarding passengers, and the modeling errors caused by non-controlled modes. This enables a comparison of the proposed control method with the conventional one in terms of the robustness toward parameter variation. Thus, this result shows the high robustness and usefulness of the proposed controller.

Semiactive Control of High‐Speed Railway Vehicle Suspension Systems with Magnetorheological Dampers

“…Since the 1970s, semiactive suspensions have attracted much attention, and some controllable dampers, including electrorheological (ER) dampers and magnetorheological (MR) dampers, have been available for use in semiactive suspensions of railway vehicles [13][14][15]. Many semiactive control strategies based on measured signals, such as skyhook (SH) [16], ground-hook (GH) [17], acceleration-driven damping (ADD) [18], and hybrid control [19], have begun to be used in simulations and research tools. e complex dynamics characteristics of MR dampers such as hysteresis loops and magnetic saturation make the models of MR dampers very important.…”

Suppression of vertical bending and rigid-body-mode vibration in railway vehicle car body by primary and secondary suspension control: Results of simulations and running tests using Shinkansen vehicle

“…The variable primary vertical damper is required to have good responsiveness to the command current around the natural frequency of the first bending mode vibration of the car body (8)(9)(10)(11) Hz in general). Accordingly, measures were taken to prevent the deterioration of damper responsiveness; in particular, the effect of the compressibility of the hydraulic oil in the damper was suppressed to the maximum extend possible, and the rigidity of the rubber bushing was increased.…”

“…Moreover, the control of actuators or variable dampers introduced in the secondary suspension [8][9][10][11] and the control of the active mass damper attached to the car body and actuators attached to the secondary suspension can be used as methods to simultaneously suppress bending and rigid-body-mode vibrations in car bodies [12].…”

“…The conventionally used methods of suppressing bending vibration in car bodies include dissipating vibration energy by introducing some damping materials or dynamic dampers in the car body [4,5], and directly applying a damping force to the car body via piezoelectric elements attached to it [6,7]. Moreover, the control of actuators or variable dampers introduced in the secondary suspension [8][9][10][11] and the control of the active mass damper attached to the car body and actuators attached to the secondary suspension can be used as methods to simultaneously suppress bending and rigid-body-mode vibrations in car bodies [12].…”