Hardware-in-the-loop simulation experiment for semi-active vibration control of lateral vibrations of railway vehicle by magneto-rheological fluid damper

Abstract

The active lateral suspension (ALS) of a train consists of either active or semi-active technologies. However, such an active system on a real railway vehicle is not easy to test because of cost and time. In this study, a hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS) system is developed to test the ALS. To this end, the dynamic model of a railway vehicle is equipped with the actuator, two bogies and four-wheel sets, and the ALS is used. The proposed HILS system consists of an alternating current servo motor connected to a ball-screw mechanism and a digital control system. The digital control system implements the dynamic model and the control algorithm. The design and manufacture of the HILS system are explained in detail. Both the passive damper and the magneto-rheological (MR) fluid damper are tested using the HILS system, where the sky-hook control algorithm was applied for the MR fluid damper. Experimental results show that the proposed HILS system can be effectively used for the performance estimation of the ALS.