Application of Braking/Traction Control Systems to the Scaled Active Steering Testbed in the Railway Vehicle

Active steering system of railway vehicles has proven its ability to bridge the gap between stability and curve friendliness. Generally scaled railway vehicles were developed to reproduce the fundamental dynamic behavior of the full size railway vehicle in laboratory conditions. This paper describes the design of the braking/traction control systems as a part of a 1/5 scaled railway vehicle for active steering testbed which is to alleviate wheel/rail contact forces and to decrease wheel/rail wear. This system consists of two steering actuators, a steering controller, and various sensor systems to detect lateral displacement, vibration, track curvature, and so on. The control strategy of the braking/traction is founded on the velocity difference of two axle speed of the driving bogie. Running test results of 1/5 scaled active steering vehicle on the curved track show that the proposed braking/traction control systems has good performance. Key-Words: Braking/Traction Control Systems, Active Steering, Railway Vehicle, Scaled Model, Testbed