There has been an impetus in recent years to increase railway train speeds and reduce journey times. As train speeds have increased, other problems have manifested themselves, in particular the consequent deterioration in ride quality at these higher operating speeds. Improvement in suspension design is one option which can circumvent this problem. Suspension design for a modem high-speed train has hitherto been a heuristic procedure directed towards optimising the passive components of the suspension. Performance limits are now being reached with passive suspensions due to the inherent trade-offs which need to be made in the design process. Active suspension, which eases this inherent trade-off, has received a great deal of interest in both academia and industry over recent years. A number of theoretical and experimental studies have highlighted the potential benefits of active suspension technology. Theoretical studies have concentrated on using simple vehicle models and although providing the initial impetus to active suspension they have not given the industry full confidence in them. In contrast, experimental studies have highlighted a number of problems, most notably the significant effect actuators can have on the overall performance.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:360857 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Pratt, Ian |
| Publisher | Loughborough University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/27621 |
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