MAGNETORHEOLOGICAL SEMI-ACTIVE SUSPENSION TO IMPROVE HIGH SPEED RAILWAY VEHICLES PERFORMANCE

The paper presents the opportunity of using a magnetorheological damper to control the lateral oscillations of a passenger railway vehicle to increase its comfort and speed features. The lateral dynamics of the vehicle is simulated using a multibody model with 17 degrees of freedom considering the lateral, yawing and rolling oscillations. The equations describing the model are integrated by the authors using original software. The mathematical model considers the geometrical nonlinearities of the wheel-track contact. The nonlinear stability of the vehicle running on tangent tracks with irregularities is assessed and it is shown the influence of the construction parameters of the suspensions on the vehicle's performance. A magneto-rheological device with sequential damping based on balance logic control strategy is introduced in the secondary suspension of the vehicle to reduce the lateral accelerations generated by the track's irregularities. The system's response in terms of accelerations is compared for both passive and semi-active cases. It is shown that the magneto-rheological semi-active suspension improves the safety and the comfort of the railway vehicle.