Research and application of neural network for tread wear prediction and optimization

Abstract

The wheel tread wear of heavy haul freight car in operation leads to shortened wheel turning period, reduced operation life, and poor train operation performance. In addition, wheel rail wear is a complex non-linear problem that integrates multiple disciplines. Thus, using a single physical or mathematical model to accurately describe and predict it is difficult. How to establish a model that could accurately predict wheel tread wear is an urgent problem and challenge that needs to be solved. In this paper, a tread wear prediction and optimization method based on chaotic quantum particle swarm optimization (CQPSO)-optimized derived extreme learning machine (DELM), namely CQPSO-DELM, is proposed to overcome this problem. First, an extreme learning machine model with derivative characteristics is proposed (DELM). Next, the chaos algorithm is introduced into the quantum particle swarm optimization algorithm to optimize the parameters of DELM. Then, through the CQPSO-DELM prediction model, the vehicle dynamics model simulates the maximum wheel tread wear under different test parameters to train and predict. Results show that the error performance index of the CQPSO-DELM prediction model is smaller than that of other algorithms. Thus, it could better reflect the influence of different parameters on the value of wheel tread wear. CQPSO is used to optimize the tread coordinates to obtain a wheel profile with low wear. The optimized wheel profile is fitted and reconstructed by the cubic non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) theory, and the optimized wear value of the tread is compared with the original wear value. The optimized wear value is less than the original wear value, thus verifying the effectiveness of the optimization model. The CQPSO-DELM model proposed in this paper could predict the wear value of different working conditions and tree shapes and solve the problem that different operating conditions and complex environment could have a considerable effect on the prediction of tread wear value. The optimization of wheel tread and the wear prediction of different tread shapes are realized from the angle of artificial intelligence for the first time.