Abstract
A new method for improving riding comfort by reducing vertical flexural vibrations in railway car bodies is studied in this paper. Piezoelectric elements are attached on the car body in order to convert vibration energy to electrical energy, which can be dissipated in a shunt circuit. Simulations, where the car body is modelled as an elastically supported simple beam, indicate that the method yields significant vibration suppression with only a small amount of added weight. The simulations are supplemented by experiments on a 1 : 5 scale model of a Shinkansen 100 series vehicle.
