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

Abstract

Abstract:To improve ride comfort in railway vehicles, the suppression of vertical bending vibration and rigid-body-mode vibration in the car body is essential. In this paper, a system is proposed that aims to reduce bending and rigid-body-mode vibration simultaneously by introducing damping control devices in the primary and secondary suspensions. The technique involves a control system of primary vertical dampers and air springs; the former are used to suppress the first bending mode vibration; the latter, to suppress the rigid-body-mode vibration. The results of both simulations and vehicle running tests on the Sanyo-Shinkansen line demonstrate that this system reduced vertical vibrations in the bogies and the car body using the sky-hook control theory. In the running tests in particular, the system reduced the vertical vibration acceleration PSD peak value in the first bending mode to almost 20 per cent and in the rigid body mode to almost 50 per cent compared with the case when the system was not used. As a result, the ride quality level L T (a widely used index of ride comfort in Japan) decreased by at least 3 dB, indicating greater ride comfort.

Active suspension in railway vehicles: a literature survey

“…4.2.3, a Shinkansen vehicle was tested recently on a roller rig and in the line. Field tests were carried out on a line having a relatively poor track quality, to verify the effectiveness of the scheme [27,39,89]. The semi-active primary suspension can selectively reduce the vibration of the first bending mode of the car-body, and with tuned LQG controller, the rigid car-body motions can also be attenuated to some degree.…”

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

“…Typically, the quarter car model is used only to research methods of improving the ride comfort of passengers because of its simple structure, and half-car and full-car models are used to characterize other types of dynamic performance, such as lateral stability and running safety. However, most research attention is placed on improving ride comfort or reducing the vibration of the car body, and other dynamics of performance of railway vehicles are typically neglected, although they are important [8][9][10]. For a running railway vehicle, the most important performance aspect should be safety, particularly when the railway vehicle is running on a curved track.…”

Modelling of suspension components in a rail vehicle dynamics context

“…The same modelling approach was followed by Sugahara et al [97], where a model for the vertical vibration of a complete rail vehicle equipped with semi-active air springs and adaptive primary dampers was also defined.…”

“…Hydraulic devices allow a larger pass-band than pneumatic actuators and can be used to improve the performance of the active or semi-active suspension, also allowing the use of these devices in the primary suspension [97]. However, hydraulic suspensions imply a higher transmissibility at high frequency and, therefore, their use needs to be carefully considered in view of high-frequency vibration transmitted to the car body.…”

“…Sugahara et al [97] proposed a model for a semi-active vertical damper for use in the primary suspension of Shinkansen trains. The model consists of an ideal orifice in parallel to a controlled blow-off valve.…”