Combined active suspension and structural damping control for suppression of flexible bodied railway vehicle vibration

Abstract

The design trend for future high speed trains is envisaged to be lightweight, rising the cost of structural vibration due to the extra flexibility. In this context, studies have looked into suppression of such vibrations via use of either (conventional actuators) active suspensions or by structural damping via piezoelectric actuators. The addition of extra macro-actuators will highly impact vehicle weight and is subject to location constraints, while the use of only piezoactuators normally does not reach the required force levels for appropriate suppression. However, piezo-actuators provide appropriate complementary action with conventional active suspension. In this paper, we present a decentralised control scheme for suppressing the vertical vibration of the vehicle body, combining active structural damping via frequency-weighted H 2 control and active suspension control using skyhook damping via structured H ∞ synthesis. A vertical side-view model of a flexible-bodied railway vehicle is used for the control study, with the configuration of piezoelectric actuators and sensors determined via structural norms. Stability robustness of the controller is analysed with respect to parametric and dynamic uncertainties using µ analysis techniques. Results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme for both flexible and rigid modes while guaranteeing robustness to model uncertainty.

Active Vibration Control of Railway Vehicle Car Body by Secondary Suspension Actuators and Piezoelectric Actuators

“…x x 、 are the coordinates of the two fixed ends of the lth piezoelectric actuator; and l M (x,t) is the torque acting on the car body by the lth piezoelectric actuator acting on the vehicle body, which can be expressed as [15] 1 2…”

Contributions of vehicle dynamics to the energy efficient operation of road and rail vehicles

“…To counteract this trend, attempts have been made to increase the structural damping of the carbody, often through using passive or active piezoelectric elements attached to the carbody structure. A recent example of the use of active piezoelectric elements is given by Zheng et al [39], where an active secondary suspension is also studied to further reduce the carbody vibrations.…”

Nonlinear impact of traction rod on the dynamics of a high-speed rail vehicle carbody

“…Besides, it is advised to use a rigid connection for light equipment [16]. Zheng et al (2019) [17] suppressed the carbody's rigid and flexural vibrations of a railway vehicle by combining the structural damping and active suspension control. Bokaeian et al (2019) [3] considered the simultaneous effects of bending and twisting elastic deformations of the carbody on the bounce and the ride quality of a high-speed vehicle.…”