Modeling and Simulation of Anti-Skid Control System of Railway Vehicle in Curved Track

Abstract

The slipping of railway vehicle wheels during curve negotiation has been always a major problem in the railway transportation. One of the causes of these slippages is predicted to be the lack of proper curve radius which incites high creepages. The creepages cause override of proper wheel rail interaction while negotiating a curve. Before the days of modern automatic control systems, the skills of a driver set the braking deceleration and speed limits for proper curve negotiation. In case of a light rail transit system, with condensed population, there is a huge demand of transporting increased number of people. The increased train weight is again expected to have additional effects on the wheelset slipping when negotiating the curve and braking on a gradient curvature. Braking control method should be used to limit the creeppages before the train starts skidding.
 The aim of this paper is to model the anti-skid control of a train in curved track in two instances: when the train is braking on a gradient curve and when the train is negotiating a curved track. To achieve this objective, the lateral dynamics equations of motion of the wheelset are solved to predict the yaw angle and lateral displacements as well as their velocities. These quantities are used to calculate the creepages and creep forces. In return, they are input to the control model to limit the skidding. Computer simulation using MATLAB/Simulink is carried out to assess the feasibility of the control method. The results will be used to design proper control systems that the rail network in congested environment are able to use. Antiskid control offers other benefits such as increasing the lateral comfort by reduced lateral forces and limiting noise generated by skidding.