Improved curving performance of an innovative two-axle vehicle: a reasonable feedforward active steering approach

Abstract

A mechatronic rail vehicle with reduced tare weight, two axles and only one level of suspension is proposed with the objective of reducing investment and maintenance costs. A wheelset to carbody connection frame in composite material will be used both as structural and as suspension element. Active control is introduced to steer the wheelsets and improve the curving performance. A feedforward control approach for active curve steering based on non-compensated lateral acceleration and curvature is proposed to overcome stability issues of a feedback approach. The feedforward approach is synthesised starting from the best achievable results of selected feedback approaches in terms of wheel energy dissipation and required actuation force. A set of 357 running cases (embracing 7 curves, 17 speeds per curve and 3 conicities) is used to design the controller. The controller is shown to perform well for conicity and track geometry variations and under the presence of track irregularities.

KEYWORDS:

• Feedforward control
• feedback control comparison
• active control of rail vehicles
• two-axle vehicle
• conicity variation

Acknowledgments

This project has received funding from the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement (No. 777564). The content of this paper reflects only the author's view and the JU is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This project has received funding from the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement (No. 777564). The content of this paper reflects only the author's view and the JU is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.