Physical coupling and decoupling of railway trains at cruising speeds: train control and dynamics

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ABSTRACT This paper studied an emerging technology called Dynamic Coupling that to allow physical coupling and decoupling of railway trains at cruising speeds. A train controller and a train model were introduced and simulated using Parallel Computing. Two transitional gap references were designed (hyperbolic tangent and exponential). Two six-vehicle passenger trains coupling and decoupling on a revised real-world track section at 80 km/h were simulated. Results indicated that a certain negative (e.g. -5 mm) Reference Gap at Coupling Instant (RG@CI) and a positive (e.g. 2 mm) Reference Gap at Decoupling Instant (RG@DI) were recommended to ensure a quick coupling process and to avoid decoupling impacts. Comparatively, the exponential case was better to reduce infrastructure upgrade requirements and to achieve better comfort. The simulated train movements well matched the designed gap references; Dynamic Coupling was possible in terms of train dynamics in the simulated cases.