Semi-active control for independently rotating wheelset in railway vehicles with MR dampers

Zaeim, A

Abstract

This thesis presents details of an investigation of a controller for MR damper in the implementation of semi-active control, for primary suspensions of the independently rotating railway vehicles.
This research focuses on using MR damper and it addresses on three main aspects when designing semi-active control systems for this application.
One aspect is magnetorheological dampers categorised as a controllable fluid damper which can reversibly change from a flowing viscose fluid to semi-solid viscose fluid. The second aspect is the controllable yield strength can change in a millisecond by inducing an electric or magnetic field. Third aspect is MR damper is cheaper than actuators which are usually use in full active controller
This research is a combination of a lookup table based on the inverse MR damper model to control the current input (to the MR damper) from required force and relative velocity of the device. The MR damper produces the desired force as precisely as possible. However, it is not possible to have precise knowledge of MR parameters and it is also difficult to account for the hysteresis present in MR dampers in the lookup table. Therefore, an additional local PI feedback controller is also used to improve the robustness for the MR control.
As the main result, this study provides a comparison between semi-active controller with the use of MR damper and a full active controller system. The results show semi-active controller with the use of MR damper performed as good as full active controller.
However semi-active control systems with MR dampers offer an overall efficiency and robustness when compared to the full active control system. Also, this system delivers comparable performance with the benefit of increased reliability and lower cost.
In order to assess the developed system comprehensively, a two–axle vehicle model and a full bogie vehicle model are both evaluated individually in the study.
The performance and robustness assessments of the developed semi-active controller with the full active control system are evaluated with the use of both two–axle vehicle model and the full bogie vehicle model with different operational track features such as curved track and straight track with lateral irregularities with various travel speeds.
This study designed and developed a semi-active control systems with use of MR damper in primary suspension for independent rotation wheelsets in railway vehicles. Computer simulation results verified the suggested semi-active control is able to provide required stability and guidance control for independently- rotating wheelsets. Also, the result performed as well as full active control with the advantage of utilizing a lower cost device for semi-active control rather than an expensive actuator for full active control.

Citation

Zaeim, A. Semi-active control for independently rotating wheelset in railway vehicles with MR dampers. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Dec 20, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 20, 2021
• Related Public URLs: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38077-9_2
• Award Date: Feb 25, 2021