Semi-Active Suspension Systems for Railway Vehicles Based on Magnetorheological Fluid Dampers

Abstract

In this paper, a seventeen degree-of-freedom (DOF) model for a full scale railway vehicle integrated with the semi-active controlled magnetorheological (MR) fluid dampers in its secondary suspension system is proposed to cope with the lateral, yaw, and roll motions of the car body, trucks, and wheelsets. The governing equation considering the dynamics of the railway vehicle integrated with MR fluid dampers in the secondary suspension system and the dynamics of the rail track irregularities are developed. The Linear Quadratic Gaussion (LQG) control law using the acceleration feedback is adopted, in which the state variables are estimated from the measurable accelerations with a Kalman estimator. In order to evaluate how the performances of the railway vehicle system integrated with the semi-active controlled MR fluid dampers can be improved, the lateral, yaw, and roll accelerations of the car body, trucks, and wheelsets of a full scale railway vehicle integrated with MR fluid dampers, which are controlled (the semi-active) and uncontrolled (the passive on and passive off) respectively, are analyzed under the random track irregularities based on the established governing equations and the modelled track irregularities. The simulation results not only show the control effectiveness of the railway vehicle with the semi-active suspension system based on MR fluid dampers for railway vehicles, but also illustrate that the semi-active railway vehicle suspension system based on MR fluid dampers com-

Twin-tube- and bypass-containing magneto-rheological damper for use in railway vehicles

“…Governing equations to model a railway vehicle with multiple degrees of freedom (generally, 17 degrees of freedom) and with integrated MR dampers have been developed, and the motion of a carbody simulated. [11][12][13][14] The obtained results indicate that a semi-active controlled MR damper-based suspension system is effective for use in railway vehicles. The carbody acceleration is significantly reduced, and the acceleration of the trucks and wheelsets can be increased to some extent.…”

Ideal Rectifier Bridge Converting the Harvested Energy of Vibrations Into Electric Energy to Power an MR Damper

“…Such systems provided in e.g. automobiles and railway vehicles (Sung and Choi 2008, Wang and Liao 2009a, Wang and Liao 2009b) utilize ambient vibrations to excite the harvester harmonically, thereby producing an alternating voltage or AC power. The AC power has to be conditioned before it can be effectively used with any electronics or storage elements requiring DC power (Safei et al 2019).…”