Keywords: ride comfort, active suspension, skyhook control, mode separation, safety analysis, rigid body modes, electro-hydraulic actuator.

Ride comfort is one of the important criteria when designing and approving a new train. This parameter is negatively affected by low track quality or by increased train speed. One way to improve ride comfort in such operation conditions is to use active suspension control. However, the solution needs to be economic and reliable to remain attractive to industry. In this paper such an active suspension is developed and tested in a collaboration between KTH and Bombardier. The active control is implemented by replacing secondary vertical and lateral dampers with actuators. Skyhook control theory is used in combination with mode separation to calculate the reference force to the actuators. A two car-body train set manufactured by Bombardier is used as a test train. One of the cars has conventional passive suspension and is used as a reference car and the other is equipped with active secondary lateral and vertical suspension. Before carrying out the measurements, different failure scenarios of the active suspension were defined and studied in the multi-body simulation software Simpack. Active secondary vertical and lateral suspensions were finally tested together for the first time in Sweden in May 2013. Measurements were performed at different speeds up to 200 km/h on tracks around Stockholm. The results show a significant reduction of the vibration level in the carbody. According to the comfort values, up to 44% improvement is achieved.

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