Adaptive Control of Active Suspensions for High-Speed Rail Vehicles (Active4HST) (RV44)

Project Coordinator - KTH Rail Vehicles

Project Leader at KTH - Sebastian Stichel

Scientists at KTH - Carlos Casanueva, Rickard Perrson, Prapanpong Damsongsaeng

Sources of Funding - Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI), Thailand

The high-speed rail network is continuously expanding as it has proven to be an attractive and sustainable mode of transport. A high-speed railway vehicle is one of the key elements that ensure a safe operation, high mobility and comfortable for passengers. This project, therefore, focuses on the development of active suspension systems with adaptive control strategy, which is a potential solution for vehicle performances enhancement. The active solution is proposed to improve the ride quality and running stability, especially during high-speed operation. This study also aims to investigate the potential of active solutions for track requirement relaxation. Hence, the research scope covers the adaptive control strategy design for the active suspension system, development of novel controllable damper, and failure mode and effect analysis.

In technical aspects, the model of high-speed train is equipped with both active primary and secondary suspension systems utilizing adaptive control strategies as control methods. The adaptation mechanism will be designed with the adoption of online state estimators and supervision systems. The novel controllable damper will be developed aiming to reduce the high-frequency transmission, which prevents ride comfort deterioration. Subsequently, the failure modes and their effects on vehicle dynamics will be analysed to increase the robustness of the active solution. Later, we will also study the ability of an adaptive system to mitigate the undesired behaviours of vehicles subjected to malfunctioning components.