Development and verification of individual motor control technology to improve the driving performance of independently rotating wheel type railway vehicle using hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) Simulator

Abstract

In order to realize the tram’s low-floor structure, most of the trams that have been recently introduced adopt an independently rotating wheelset. In the case of trains driving in two regions with different gauges, an independently rotating wheelset may be applied to utilize the variable track technology. Since the independent rotation type wheelset has no rotational restraint of the left and right wheels, the difference in rotational speed between the outer and inner wheels occurs naturally during curved driving, and it is applied to railroad vehicles traveling in sharp curve sections because it smoothly drives curved driving. However, the longitudinal creep force and the lateral restoring force are weakened as the left and right rotational constraints disappear. Lack of lateral direction restoring force weakens stability while causing continuous flange contact driving or zigzag phenomenon against disturbance. Under the conditions of driving in a sharp curve, these railway vehicles generate excessive wear, noise, and lateral pressure, as well as deterioration of ride comfort and derailment. In order to overcome these drawbacks, a method has been proposed in which the torque of a motor mounted on each wheel is individually controlled to generate lateral restoring force or to improve driving performance through lateral displacement control using a yaw moment. In this paper, development using HIL (hardware in the loop) simulator was performed to check the performance and stability of the individual motor torque control technology before verifying by applying the individual motor torque control to the actual vehicle. HIL simulator were constructed by combining a real-time dynamic analysis model of a railway vehicle with a drive motor to which real individual motor control was applied. Under the conditions of driving the test track where the actual test vehicle was tested, the analysis of the driving characteristics and the control characteristics of the disturbance was performed to confirm the proposed individual motor torque control performance.