Abstract
For the purpose of improving the ride quality, an actively controlled suspension system for railroad passenger cars has been developed using pneumatic servo elements. On each truck, two pneumatic cylinders are mounted parallel to the conventional air springs and a lateral hydraulic damper. The signals from lateral accelerometers set on the car body floor are finally fed into pneumatic servo valves after the gain and phase are moderately compensated. In 1984, running tests with the series 485 limited express electric cars incorporated with this system were performed on the Touhoku Line. The lateral vibrational accelerations were reduced by the active control. The effect on reducing the vibrations was approximately 50% on average.
