Study on Active Suspension for Railway Vehicles to Prevent Derailment during Earthquakes

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to construct a system using active suspensions to stabilize vehicle behavior during earthquakes in order to preventing from derailment, and to verify its effectiveness in preventing derailments and practicality through simulations. The vehicle is modeled at a quarter scale, with the primary degrees of freedom being lateral, vartical, and roll. Actuators are installed in the lateral direction between the vehicle and the bogie, and control inputs are calculated using optimal control theory. The results showed that controlling the lateral displacement of the wheels tended to cause derailment. When the roll angle displacement of the wheel and axle was controlled, a high derailment prevention effect was shown. It was found that the current system may not provide satisfactory control effects because a very large actuator output is required.