Experimental Investigations of Valve-Controlled Dampers for Enhanced Ride Comfort on High-Speed Rail Vehicles
Huailong Shi, Feng Lin Gan, Jing Zeng
Abstract
Valve-controlled semiactive hydraulic dampers were implemented into the secondary lateral suspension of a high-speed rail vehicle to enhance the ride comfort. Dynamic tests on the damper were performed to analyze the force characteristics and response delays. Roller rig tests on the vehicle were further conducted to elaborate control efforts under various track irregularities at speeds up to 440 km/h. On-track tests on the train were also conducted to assess the ride comfort improvement achieved with the active suspension. Results show that control laws, including constant damping, sky-hook on-off, and sky-hook continuous damping, can greatly restrain car body vibration and then improve ride comfort by a maximum 19% in Sperling index with a bandwidth of 1<bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">∼</b>20 Hz. The on-track test at 160 km/h confirmed the suspension’s capability to mitigate low-frequency vibrations below 2.5 Hz, achieving an 11% improvement. This study elaborates the behavior of the valve-controlled damper, highlighting its effectiveness in enhancing ride comfort and optimizing vehicle dynamics under operational conditions.