Abstract
To improve the ride comfort of tilting train, a lateral semi-active suspension system has been developed and subjected to a running test. Because to improve the passive tilting performance of tilting train, the resistance of tilting mechanism of typical Japanese trains are set up to small value. This feature gives many advantages on tilting performance of train, but it is a hard condition to apply a lateral semi-active suspension. To make an effective semi-active suspension system for the tilting trains, a changeable tilting damper has been developed and tested with semi-active suspension. As a result, the following have been verified. (1) The semi-active suspension without changeable tilting damper suppresses the lateral vibration of carbody about 20-30%. (2) Its performance becomes worse at the end of a traverse curve. (3) The changeable tilting damper improves the performance of semi-active suspension. (4) The combination of semi-active suspension and changeable tilting damper is an effective way to improve the ride comfort of tilting trains.
