A real-time approach to robust identification of tyre–road friction characteristics on mixed-μ roads

ABSTRACT

The interaction between the tyre and the road is crucial for understanding the dynamic behaviour of a vehicle. The road–tyre friction characteristics play a key role in the design of braking, traction and stability control systems. Thus, in order to have a good performance of vehicle dynamic stability control, real-time estimation of the tyre–road friction coefficient is required. This paper presents a new development of an on-line tyre–road friction parameters estimation methodology and its implementation using both LuGre and Burckhardt tyre–road friction models. The proposed method provides the capability to observe the tyre–road friction coefficient directly using measurable signals in real-time. In the first step of our approach, the recursive least squares is employed to identify the linear parameterisation form of the Burckhardt model. The identified parameters provide, through a T–S fuzzy system, the initial values for the LuGre model. Then, a new LuGre model-based nonlinear least squares parameter estimation algorithm using the proposed static form of the LuGre to obtain the parameters of LuGre model based on recursive nonlinear optimisation of the curve fitting errors is presented. The effectiveness and performance of the algorithm are demonstrated through the real-time model simulations with different longitudinal speeds and different kinds of tyres on various road surface conditions in both Matlab/Carsim environments as well as collected data from real experiments on a commercial trailer.     

Understanding high coupler forces at metro vehicles

Couplers of motor units connect the wagons mechanically, electrically and pneumatically. Nowadays they are also designed to meet crash requirements. Since the traction and braking forces are distributed along the motor unit, coupler forces occuring during operation are considered to be low. In most cases, this is actually true. However, towing away a defect motor unit by another motor unit can lead to high forces due to longitudinal vibrations, which may ultimately lead to a failure of the coupler or superstructure. Investigations on the behaviour of motor units operating in an European city have been carried out for about 3 years [Kühnel, A., Hecht, M., Udriste-Breazu, I., Geike, T. and Böhme, C., Kräfte beim Bergen liegengebliebener U-Bahnen—ein unterschätztes Risiko. ZEVrail-Glasers Annalen, Tagungsband SFT Graz, 2004, pp. 128–136; Udriste-Breazu, I., Böhme, C., Kühnel, A. and Hecht, M., Behaviour of Motor Unit Couplers in Towing Case. 4th International Symposium on Passive Safety of Rail Vehicles, Okt. 2003, Berlin, Germany, homepage www.ifv-bahntechnik.de.]. The research has always been focussed on the certain parameters and conditions of the motor units under study. Little effort has been made to theoretically study the problem on a general basis. The aim of this paper is to close this gap.     

Lane-keeping benefits of practical rear axle steer

The classic two-degree-of-freedom yaw-plane or ‘bicycle’ vehicle model is augmented with two additional states to describe lane-keeping behaviour and further augmented with an additional control input to steer the rear axle. A simple driver model is hypothesised where the driver closes a loop on a projected lateral lane position. The driver can select the preview distance to compensate driver/vehicle dynamics, consistent with the ‘cross-over’ model found in the literature. A rear axle steer control law is found to be a function of the front axle steering input and vehicle speed that exhibits stability similar to a positive-real system, while at the same time improving the ability of the driver/vehicle system to track a complex curved lane and improving steady-state manoeuvrability. The theoretically derived control law bears similarity to practical embodiments allowing a deeper understanding of the functional value of steering a rear axle.     

Kinematic and dynamic analysis of a heavy truck with individual front suspension

The main focus of this work is on the characteristics of a commercial vehicle with individual front suspension (IFS). Both kinematic and dynamic properties of the vehicle are investigated through simulations and analytical expressions. Moreover, employing the model of the tractor semitrailer combination, the study presents the results of comparison between the trucks with IFS and rigid front axle with respect to comfort and handling. This is done by analysing the responses of the vehicles to different road and steering inputs. The obtained results show enhanced comfort and steering feeling for the truck with IFS.     

各向同性支撑结构转子的临界转速研究

电机转子的临界转速适当偏离工作转速是电机设计的一项基本要求.论文采用Prohl传递矩阵法、Riccati传递矩阵法计算了某型电机的临界转速,研究转子结构参数对临界转速的影响,结论对转子的结构设计与优化具有重要的参考意义.     

基于最优控制的半主动悬挂机车平稳性能研究

现有的半主动悬挂控制策略本身存在一定的弊端,即在有效改善车体平稳性的同时,转向架和轮对的动力学性能变差,为此采用最优控制的方法,综合考虑其性能指标,对车辆悬挂系统的半主动控制策略进行了改进研究,同时利用动力学仿真软件Simpack建立一个2C0机车控制模型,并对改进后的控制策略进行了动力学性能仿真分析.仿真结果表明,基于最优控制改进的半主动悬挂控制策略,在提高车辆平稳性的同时,转向架构架和轮对的动力学性能基本上保持不变,从而使整车性能多指标综合达到最优.     

基于响应面方法的车钩缓冲器特性曲线优化分析

为了更加真实地反映车钩缓冲器实际工作状态和进行缓冲器特性曲线优化,提出采用列车纵向动力学系统对缓冲器的特性曲线进行分析。在优化方面,从响应面方法的基本原理出发,建立响应面的子区域构造方法,运用凝聚函数和惩罚技术处理约束的遗传算法求解加约束条件的二次响应面最优解。以大秦线实际线路、列车编组以及列车纵向动力学性能为优化计算的条件,结合缓冲器数值模型建立缓冲器特性曲线的优化模型,运用所提出基于遗传算法的响应面方法对重载列车缓冲器特性曲线进行优化求解。结果说明所提方法对求解缓冲器特性曲线的优化问题非常有效。     

A system dynamics modeling for urban air pollution: A case study of Tehran,Iran

Development of strategies to control urban air pollution is a complex process involving a wide range of sciences. In this study a system dynamics model is proposed in order to estimate the behavior of parameters affecting air pollution in Tehran. The proposed model includes two subsystems: (1) urban transportation, (2) air polluting industries. In this paper, several policies are proposed to mitigate air pollution. The proposed model is simulated under several scenarios using historical data of transportation and industrial sectors in Tehran. Policies are categorized as: (1) road construction, (2) technology improvement in fuel and automotive industries, (3) traffic control plans, (4) development of public transportation infrastructures. The results show effectiveness of the proposed policies. In this case, technology improvement in fuel and automotive industries and development of public transportation infrastructures are more effective policies in order to reduce air pollution.     

Ridership estimation procedure for a transit corridor with new bus rapid transit service

Ridership estimation is a critical step in the planning of a new transit route or change in service. Very often, when a new transit route is introduced, the existing routes will be modified, vehicle capacities changed, or service headways adjusted. This has made ridership forecasts for the new, existing, and modified routes challenging. This paper proposes and demonstrates a procedure that forecasts the ridership of all transit routes along a corridor when a new bus rapid transit (BRT) service is introduced and existing regular bus services are adjusted. The procedure uses demographic data along the corridor, a recent origin–destination survey data, and new and existing transit service features as inputs. It consists of two stages of transit assignment. In the first stage, a transit assignment is performed with the existing transit demand on the proposed BRT and existing bus routes, so that adjustments to the existing bus services can be identified. This transit assignment is performed iteratively until there is no adjustment in transit services. In the second stage, the transit assignment is carried out with the new BRT and adjusted regular bus services, but incorporates a potential growth in ridership because of the new BRT service. The final outputs of the procedure are ridership for all routes and route segments, boarding and alighting volumes at all stops, and a stop‐by‐stop trip matrix. The proposed ridership estimation procedure is applicable to a new BRT route with and without competing regular bus routes and with BRT vehicles traveling in dedicated lanes or in mixed traffic. The application of the proposed procedure is demonstrated via a case study along the Alameda Corridor in El Paso, Texas. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High-speed wheel/rail contact determining method with rotating flexible wheelset and validation under wheel polygon excitation

A rotating flexible wheelset model is developed and integrated into a vehicle/track dynamic model. Flexible wheelset modes with natural frequencies less than 1000?Hz are considered in the wheelset modelling. An innovation of the paper is that wheel/rail rolling contact calculation considers the effect of the wheelset flexibility and the rotating effect. By introducing two half dummy rigid wheelsets the rolling contact between the flexible wheelset and the two rails can be transformed to that between a rigid wheelset and the rails. As an extension application, the wheel OOR (Out-Of-Round) wears with the 11th, 15th, and 17th orders are used to the vehicle system dynamic model with rigid, flexible and rotating-flexible wheelset model. The results of the three models are compared to study the influence of wheelset flexibility and rotation. The ‘online searching contact method’ developed in this paper is compared with the traditional contact method with considering the rotating flexible wheelset. And then a measured OOR is used to excite the rotating flexible wheelset, the response of which is analysed and verified.