Abstract
Since the concept of active suspensions appeared, its large possible benefits has attracted continuous exploration in the field of railway engineering. With new demands of higher speed, better ride comfort and lower maintenance cost for railway vehicles, active suspensions are very promising technologies. Being the starting point of commercial application of active suspensions in rail vehicles, tilting trains have become a great success in some countries. With increased technical maturity of sensors and actuators, active suspension has unprecedented development opportunities. In this work, the basic concepts are summarized with new theories and solutions that have appeared over the last decade. Experimental studies and the implementation status of different active suspension technologies are described as well. Firstly, tilting trains are briefly described. Thereafter, an in-depth study for active secondary and primary suspensions is performed. For both topics, after an introductory section an explanation of possible solutions existing in the literature is given. The implementation status is reported. Active secondary suspensions are categorized into active and semi-active suspensions. Primary suspensions are instead divided between acting on solid-axle wheelsets and independently rotating wheels. Lastly, a brief summary and outlook is presented in terms of benefits, research status and challenges. The potential for active suspensions in railway applications is outlined.
Highlights
Over the last half-century, railway vehicles have developed in a way that more and more electronics, sensors and controllers are applied along with the traditional mechanical structures to meet the new demands for higher speed, better ride quality and stricter safety requirement
Active suspension for railway vehicles is defined as a technology with the inclusion of electronics like sensors, controllers and actuators
Over the past 40 years, it has developed into a comprehensive combination of various technologies which can substantially improve the dynamic behaviours of the vehicle in different aspects
Summary
Over the last half-century, railway vehicles have developed in a way that more and more electronics, sensors and controllers are applied along with the traditional mechanical structures to meet the new demands for higher speed, better ride quality and stricter safety requirement. A number of digital technologies in railway engineering have been developed and put in practical use in sub-systems including train management, communication, traction and braking systems. Only a limited number of active control solutions have been introduced to improve the dynamics of the railway vehicle. As one of the successful applications, have shown great benefits, which encouraged further explorations of active suspensions over last two decades. Since the suspension of railway vehicles is a complicated system aimed at achieving different functions, active suspension technologies with different functions and configurations have been developed in various forms. Commands will be sent to an actuation system to generate the desired force and improve the dynamic performance of railway vehicles
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