Modeling and control of rail vehicle suspensions: A comparative study based on the passenger comfort
Published online on December 05, 2016
Abstract
This paper deals with the modeling and control of rail vehicle suspensions. The analytical models of the quarter rail vehicle with a passenger seat, describing the vertical dynamic, are presented for passive and active suspensions. Three controllers, i.e. PID-ZN, LQR and a PID-LQR are designed in order to improve the passenger comfort. This comfort is evaluated in terms of the passenger displacement, acceleration and frequency as a response of a two types of rail imperfection excitations. Results show that passenger comfort can be improved up to 98%. The obtained results prove that the active suspension with a PID- LQR controller yields the best results by regrouping the advantage of both PID and LQR controllers.