Wheelslide and Wheelskid Protection for a Single-Wheel Drive and Brake Module (SDBM) for Rail Vehicles

In this paper, the dynamic behaviour of a rail vehicle with single-wheel drive and brake modules is analysed. It is shown that in the wheelslide or wheelskid case, the linearised plant obtains an unstable pole whose location is determined by the shape of the current creep force curve. By considering possible variations in the shape of the creep force curve, the corresponding variation of the pole location in the right-half plane is calculated and a controller structure for creepage control and creep velocity control is suggested. If the controller design takes the worst-case pole location into account, the resulting controller stabilises the closed loop even at small velocities. Finally, this fact is illustrated through simulation results.