Active steering control strategy for rail vehicle based on minimum wear number

Abstract

ABSTRACT Active steering technology is an effective method to solve the contradiction between curving performance and running stability of traditional bogie. In this study, an integrated active steering device was developed to integrate wheelset constraints and actuators. In addition, to study the minimum wear number control strategy, the existence of an optimal steering level that minimises the wear number was corroborated by a theoretical derivation based on the single wheelset model. Later, this research method was extended to the complete vehicle lateral dynamics model and steady-state solutions at different active steering levels were analysed. The results demonstrate that at optimal steering control, wear number is the lowest. This state is less affected by the running velocity, stiffness of the primary suspension, tread taper, and creep state, which are determined by the wheelbase and track curvature. The lateral forces of rail-vehicle wheels with an active steering function at different steering levels were measured using instrumented wheelsets. Furthermore, the accuracy of the simulation model was verified by comparing the experimental data with simulation results. Finally, the wear number of test vehicles at different steering levels were predicted using this model, and the control strategy proposed in this investigation was validated.