Magnetorheological Yaw Damper with Short Response Time for Rail-way Vehicle Bogie

Abstract:
The rail vehicle suspension setting has a significant effect on the track wear and safe movement. The yaw damper affects this behaviour because its damping prevents relative rotation between bogies and car body. So, the ideal yaw damper has zero damping at an arc or a rail-switch (low-speed), on the other hand, it has a high level of damping force at straights (high-speed). The adaptive, but especially semiactive (S/A) control of yaw damper promised better performance than passive. An important parameter is damper’s dynamics (force response time). The magnetorheological (MR) yaw damper with a short response time is presented in this paper. This MR damper achieved force of 15.6 kN in a fully activated state and 1.8 kN in deactivated state. Both values were measured at piston velocity 0.2 m/s. The primary response time of damper was 7.76 ms which is sufficient for effective S/A control of yaw movement. The benefit of the MR damper in adaptive mode has been also demonstrated by driving tests on the real track.