Performance analysis of a newly designed single air spring running gear for automated people mover (APM)

ABSTRACT

The APM 300 running gear structure follows the structural design of the automobile steering drive axle; therefore, the lateral stiffness of the suspension system is considerable, resulting in poor lateral ride comfort. To improve the lateral ride comfort of the vehicle, this paper proposed a new type of running gear called single air spring running gear (SARG), and according to the original loading conditions, the parameters of the SARG air spring are modified. By establishing a theoretical model of linear steady-state curve negotiation of the single-axle tyre running gear, the radial adjusting index is deduced to evaluate the radial performance of the SARG. By establishing the force analysis model of APM rolling in the static state, APM’s flexibility coefficient is obtained to evaluate the anti-overturning capacity. The influence of running gear parameters on the flexibility coefficient is discussed in detail. Based on this, the stiffness of the SARG anti-roll bar is determined.  By comparing the dynamic performance of both types of vehicles, the SARG advantages are proved. Finally, several improvements on the SARG structure are proposed for its adaptation to more complex scenario.

KEYWORDS:

• APM
• single air spring running gear
• radial adjusting index
• automatic radial running gear
• flexibility coefficient
• anti-overturning capacity

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This Project was supported by Postdoctoral Innovation Talent Support Program (grant no. BX20200240), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant no. 2020M671207), National Key R&D Program of China (grant nos. 2018YFB1201603-02, 2018YFB1201603-07).