Real-time wheel–rail friction coefficient estimation and its application
Yunshi Zhao, Longjiang Shen, Zhongcheng Jiang, Bo Zhang, Guoyun Liu, Yao Shu, Bo Peng
Abstract
The friction coefficient at the wheel–rail interface is crucial for the traction, braking and guidance of the railway vehicle. Real-time knowledge of the friction coefficient could reduce wheel–rail damages as well as improve the vehicle running performance. The friction coefficient is very difficult to be directly measured; hence an indirect measurement method using an unscented Kalman filter was proposed in this paper. A re-adhesion controller was also developed. The method was assessed in a Simpack-Simulink co-simulation environment. The friction coefficient estimation method was found to be accurate, and the re-adhesion controller improved the vehicle braking performance as well as reduced the wheel–rail damage.