Low floors have long been goal of light rail vehicles designers and there have been several innovative solutions, albeit at the cost of considerable mechanical complexity. The axle of a conventional wheelset severely limit the scope to lower the floor. Elimination of the axle, however, creates other problems. The inherent guidance mechanism, from the wheel profiles and creepages, is removed as the wheel are allowed to rotate independently. To avoid constant flange contact another guidance mechanism is required. Technological advances have paved the way for active guidance control that removes the limitation of the flange-way clearance and can allow flange-free curving on the tightest curves. This paper develops the intelligent wheel concept forwarded by Wickens. A two 'wheel-pair' vehicle is considered. This wheel-pair consists of two independent wheels pinned to a frame. The wheel have hub motors to provide the torque for the steering as well as traction. A simple controller is applied to demonstrate the performance of the system. The maximum guidance error is shown to be 2 mm on a 54 m radius curve and the vehicle has a critical speed of 108 km/h. A discussion of the merits of the system and some practical considerations are entered into.
Active guidance of railway vehicles using traction motor torque control
Aktive Führung von Eisenbahnwagen durch Drehmomentregelung der Fahrmotore
1996
12 Seiten, 7 Bilder, 5 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Active Guidance of Railway Vehicles Using Traction Motor Torque Control
Taylor & Francis Verlag | 1996
|Active Guidance of Railway Vehicles Using Traction Motor Torque Control
Online Contents | 1996
|Active guidance of railway vehicles using traction motor torque control
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