An Expectation on Improving Curving Performance of Rail Vehicle by Actively Steered Trucks

Abstract

In the recent rolling stocks, mechatronics technology has been applied to many functions, and its usefulness was proved in various occasions. And now the saving of cost is asked eagerly in the maintenance of track and rolling stock, then it is expected that the mechatronics technology will be applied for the improvement in curve negotiation of future trains. In order to reduce the lateral force between wheel and rail during the curve negotiation, some kinds of bogie truck with actively steered wheelsets have been investigated. This paper deals with a perspective about the actively steered trucks, and examines the effectiveness of them. One of the active steering trucks employs a control law based on the self-steering ability of wheelset, measuring the relative yaw angle between the wheelset and the bogie frame. It is seen theoretically that the curving performance can be made better with active steering trucks of each kind. However, from the view point of running safety, it seems to be still not easy to put the active steering to practical use. Then, further research for ensuring the reliability of control system will be needed in future.