Influence of active steering with adaptive control law on a metro rail vehicle wheel wear and dynamic performance

Abstract

An active steering bogie is designed to for yaw control of the wheel-sets to align the wheels with the track direction during curve negotiation. Existing control laws for active steering are developed by assuming new wheels and rails, and known vehicle and track layout, but do not include the vehicle speed as an input variable. As wheels wear and vehicle speed varies, such static control law may not be optimal. In this paper, the time-varying cant surplus/ deficiency information are adapted into a modified active steering control law. Multi-body simulation results show reduced wheel wear, and increase in passenger comfort, operating speed and wheel life due to the proposed adaptive steering control law.