Parametric analysis of wheel wear in high-speed vehicles

In order to reduce the wheel profile wear of highspeed trains and extend the service life of wheels, a dynamic model for a high-speed vehicle was set up, in which the wheelset was regarded as flexible body, and the actual measured track irregularities and line conditions were considered. The wear depth of the wheel profile was calculated by the well-known Archard wear law. Through this model, the influence of the wheel profile, primary suspension stiffness, track gage, and rail cant on the wear of wheel profile were studied through multiple iterafive calculations. Numerical simulation results show that the type XP55 wheel profile has the smallest cumulative wear depth, and the type LM wheel profile has the largest wear depth. To reduce the wear of the wheel profile, the equivalent conicity of the wheel should not be too large or too small. On the other hand, a small primary vertical stiffness, a track gage around 1,435-1,438 mm, and a rail cant around 1：35-1：40 are beneficial for dynamic performance improvement and wheel wear alleviation.

Theory and practice for assessing structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains

Purpose–The safety and reliability of high-speed trains rely on the structural integrity of their components and the dynamic performance of the entire vehicle system.This paper aims to define and substantiate the assessment of the structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains in both theory and practice.The key principles and approacheswill be proposed,and their applications to high-speed trains in Chinawill be presented.Design/methodology/approach–First,the structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains are defined,and their relationship is introduced.Then,the principles for assessing the structural integrity of structural and dynamical components are presented and practical examples of gearboxes and dampers are provided.Finally,the principles and approaches for assessing the dynamical integrity of highspeed trains are presented and a novel operational assessment method is further presented.Findings–Vehicle system dynamics is the core of the proposed framework that provides the loads and vibrations on train components and the dynamic performance of the entire vehicle system.For assessing the structural integrity of structural components,an open-loop analysis considering both normal and abnormal vehicle conditions is needed.For assessing the structural integrity of dynamical components,a closed-loop analysis involving the influence of wear and degradation on vehicle system dynamics is needed.The analysis of vehicle system dynamics should follow the principles of complete objects,conditions and indices.Numerical,experimental and operational approaches should be combined to achieve effective assessments.Originality/value–The practical applications demonstrate that assessing the structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains can support better control of critical defects,better lifespan management of train components and better maintenance decision-making for high-speed trains.

Progress in reentry trajectory planning for hypersonic vehicle

The reentry trajectory planning for hypersonic vehicles is critical and challenging in the presence of numerous nonlinear equations of motion and path constraints, as well as guaranteed satisfaction of accuracy in meeting all the specified boundary conditions. In the last ten years, many researchers have investigated various strategies to generate a feasible or optimal constrained reentry trajectory for hypersonic vehicles. This paper briefly reviews the new research efforts to promote the capability of reentry trajectory planning. The progress of the onboard reentry trajectory planning, reentry trajectory optimization, and landing footprint is summarized. The main challenges of reentry trajectory planning for hypersonic vehicles are analyzed, focusing on the rapid reentry trajectory optimization, complex geographic constraints, and coop- erative strategies.

Nonlinear dynamics of fixed-trim reentry vehicles with moving-mass roll control system

Nonlinear dynamic characteristics of a fixed-trim reentry vehicle controlled by an internal moving-mass actuator are analyzed. A traditional dynamic model develops into a five-dimensional nonlinear model using classic Euler angles and their derivatives as state variables. Based on the nonlinear motion equations, by setting the offset distance of the moving-mass as a variation parameter, the curves of the system's equilibrium points are presented by numerical methods. Then the distributions and approximate analytical solutions of the equilibrium points are obtained by simplifying the model under the condition of small intrinsic angles. The results show that the numbers and values of the equilibrium points are closely connected with the location of the moving-mass. Furthermore, the stabilities of equilibrium points are examined by the Lyapunov's first method and three groups of stable equilibrium points are obtained. Since only one group of the stable equilibrium points is desired, the angular motion of the system may be unstable or stay in an undesired lock-in state when the offset distance of the moving-mass or the attitude disturbance of the vehicle is too large. © 2016 Beijing Institute of Aerospace Information.

Reentry trajectory rapid optimization for hypersonic vehicle satisfying waypoint and no-fly zone constraints

To rapidly generate a reentry trajectory for hypersonic vehicle satisfying waypoint and no-fly zone constraints, a novel optimization method, which combines the improved particle swarm optimization （PSO） algorithm with the improved Gauss pseudospectral method （GPM）, is proposed. The improved PSO algorithm is used to generate a good initial value in a short time, and the mission of the improved GPM is to find the final solution with a high precision. In the improved PSO algorithm, by controlling the entropy of the swarm in each dimension, the typical PSO algorithm＇s weakness of being easy to fall into a local optimum can be overcome. In the improved GPM, two kinds of breaks are introduced to divide the trajectory into multiple segments, and the distribution of the Legendre-Gauss （LG） nodes can be altered, so that all the constraints can be satisfied strictly. Thereby the advan- tages of both the intelligent optimization algorithm and the direct method are combined. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method is insensitive to initial values, and it has more rapid convergence and higher precision than traditional ones.

Attitude controller for reentry vehicles using state-dependent Riccati equation method

To get better tracking performance of attitude command over the reentry phase of vehicles, the use of state-dependent Riccati equation (SDRE) method for attitude controller design of reentry vehicles was investigated. Guidance commands are generated based on optimal guidance law. SDRE control method employs factorization of the nonlinear dynamics into a state vector and state dependent matrix valued function. State-dependent coefficients are derived based on reentry motion equations in pitch and yaw channels. Unlike constant weighting matrix Q, elements of Q are set as the functions of state error so as to get satisfactory feedback and eliminate state error rapidly, then formulation of SDRE is realized. Riccati equation is solved real-timely with Schur algorithm. State feedback control law u(x) is derived with linear quadratic regulator (LQR) method. Simulation results show that SDRE controller steadily tracks attitude command, and impact point error of reentry vehicle is acceptable. Compared with PID controller, tracking performance of attitude command using SDRE controller is better with smaller control surface deflection. The attitude tracking error with SDRE controller is within 5°, and the control deflection is within 30°.

Reentry Attitude Tracking Control for Hypersonic Vehicle with Reaction Control Systems via Improved Model Predictive Control Approach

This paper studies the reentry attitude tracking control problem for hypersonic vehicles(HSV)equipped with reaction control systems(RCS)and aerodynamic surfaces.The attitude dynamical model of the hypersonic vehicles is established,and the simplified longitudinal and lateral dynamic models are obtained,respectively.Then,the compound control allocation strategy is provided and the model predictive controller is designed for the pitch channel.Furthermore,considering the complicated jet interaction effect of HSV during RCS is working,an improved model predictive control approach is presented by introducing the online parameter estimation of the jet interaction coefficient for dealing with the uncertainty and disturbance.Moreover,considering the strong coupling effect between the yaw channel and roll channel,a coupled model predictive controller is designed by introducing the feedback of sideslip angle into the roll control channel to eliminate the coupling effect.Finally,the comparison simulations using the classical control method,MPC and IMPC approach are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the presented IMPC scheme.

Multi-objective reentry trajectory optimization method via GVD for hypersonic vehicles

In the constrained reentry trajectory design of hypersonic vehicles, multiple objectives with priorities bring about more difficulties to find the optimal solution. Therefore, a multi-objective reentry trajectory optimization (MORTO) approach via generalized varying domain (GVD) is proposed. Using the direct collocation approach, the trajectory optimization problem involving multiple objectives is discretized into a nonlinear multi-objective programming with priorities. In terms of fuzzy sets, the objectives are fuzzified into three types of fuzzy goals, and their constant tolerances are substituted by the varying domains. According to the principle that the objective with higher priority has higher satisfactory degree, the priority requirement is modeled as the order constraints of the varying domains. The corresponding two-side, single-side, and hybrid-side varying domain models are formulated for three fuzzy relations respectively. By regulating the parameter, the optimal reentry trajectory satisfying priorities can be achieved. Moreover, the performance about the parameter is analyzed, and the algorithm to find its specific value for maximum priority difference is proposed. The simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for hypersonic vehicles, and the comparisons with the traditional methods and sensitivity analysis are presented.

Decoupling Trajectory Tracking for Gliding Reentry Vehicles

A decoupling trajectory tracking method for gliding reentry vehicles is presented to improve the reliability of the guidance system. Function relations between state variables and control variables are analyzed. To reduce the coupling between control channels, the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) tracking system is separated into a series of two single-input single-output (SISO) subsystems. Tracking laws for both velocity and altitude are designed based on the sliding mode control (SMC). The decoupling approach is verified by the Monte Carlo simulations, and compared with the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) approach in some specific conditions. Simulation results indicate that the decoupling approach owns a fast convergence speed and a strong anti-interference ability in the trajectory tracking. © 2014 Chinese Association of Automation.

Adaptive trajectory linearization control for hypersonic reentry vehicle

This paper presents an improved design for the hypersonic reentry vehicle(HRV) by the trajectory linearization control(TLC) technology for the design of HRV. The physics-based model fails to take into account the external disturbance in the flight envelope in which the stability and control derivatives prove to be nonlinear and time-varying, which is likely in turn to increase the difficulty in keeping the stability of the attitude control system. Therefore, it is of great significance to modulate the unsteady and nonlinear characteristic features of the system parameters so as to overcome the disadvantages of the conventional TLC technology that can only be valid and efficient in the cases when there may exist any minor uncertainties. It is just for this kind of necessity that we have developed a fuzzy-neural disturbance observer(FNDO) based on the B-spline to estimate such uncertainties and disturbances concerned by establishing a new dynamic system. The simulation results gained by using the aforementioned technology and the observer show that it is just due to the innovation of the adaptive trajectory linearization control(ATLC) system. Significant improvement has been realized in the performance and the robustness of the system in addition to its fault tolerance.

Maneuver strategy of lifting reentry vehicle

An optimal maneuver strategy is proposed for lifting reentry vehicle to reach the maximum lateral range after reentering the atmosphere. Aiming at problems that too many co-state variables and difficulty in estimating the initial values of co-state variables,the equilibrium glide condition (EGC) is utilized to reduce the reentry motion equations and then the optimal maneuver strategy satisfied above performance index is derived. This maneuvering strategy is applied to the lifting reentry weapon platform CAV which was designed by America recently to realize both longitudinal and lateral trajectory design by controlling the attack angle and the bank angle respectively. The simulation result indicates that the maneuver strategy proposed enables CAV to reach favorable longitudinal range and lateral range.

Excitation and power spectrum analysis of electromagnetic radiation for the plasma wake of reentry vehicles

The plasma wake of reentry vehicles has the advantages of extensive space range and long traceability,which provides new possibilities for the detection and monitoring of reentry vehicles.Based on the Zakharov model,this work investigates the excitation and power spectrum characteristics of electromagnetic radiation for the plasma wake of a typical reentry vehicle.With the aid of parametric decay instability,the excitation condition of electromagnetic radiation for a typical plasma wake is evaluated first.The power spectrum characteristics of electromagnetic radiation,including the effects of both the flight parameters and incident wave parameters are analyzed in detail.The results show that when the phenomenon of excited electromagnetic radiation occurs,plasma wakes closer to the bottom of the vehicle and with faster speeds require higher incident frequencies and thresholds of the electric field.As the frequency of the incident wave increases,peaks appear in the power spectra of plasma wakes,and their magnitudes increase gradually.The frequency shifts of the secondary peaks are equal,whereas,the peaks of the downshifted spectral lines are generally larger than those of the upshifted spectral lines.The work in this paper provides a new idea and method for the tracking of reentry vehicles,which has potential application value in the field of reentry vehicle detection.

Influence of Vehicle Parameters on Critical Hunting Speed Based on Ruzicka Model

While introducing foreign advanced technology and cooperating with Chinese famous research institutes,the high-speed vehicles are designed and take the major task of passenger transport in China.In high-speed vehicle,the characteristic of shock absorber is an important parameter which determines overall behavior of the vehicle.The most existing researches neglect the influence of the series stiffness of the shock absorber on the vehicle dynamic behavior and have one-sided views on the equivalent conicity of wheel tread.In this paper,a high speed passenger vehicle in China is modeled to investigate the effect of the parameters taking series hydraulic shock absorber stiffness into consideration on Ruzicka model.Using the vehicle dynamic model,the effect of main suspension parameters on critical speed is studied.In order to verify the reasonableness of shock absorber parameter settings,vibration isolation characteristics are calculated and the relationship between suspension parameters and the vehicle critical hunting speed is studied.To study the influence of equivalent conicity on vehicle dynamic behavior,a series of wheel treads with different conicities are set and the vehicle critical hunting speeds with different wheel treads are calculated.The discipline between the equivalent conicity of wheel tread and critical speed are obtained in vehicle nonlinear system.The research results show that the critical speed of vehicle much depends on wheelset positioning stiffness and anti-hunting motion damper,and the series stiffness produces notable effect on the vehicle dynamic behavior.The critical speed has a peak value with the equivalent conicity increasing,which is different from the traditional opinion in which the critical speed will decrease with the conicity increasing.The relationship between critical speed and conicity of wheel tread is effected by the suspension parameters of the vehicle.The study results obtained offer a method and useful data to designing the parameters of the high speed vehicle and simulation study.

Damage Tolerance Assessment of a Brake Unit Bracket for High-Speed Railway Welded Bogie Frames

The brake unit bracket of a bogie frame is an important load-carrying component, particularly under emergency start/stop conditions. Conventional infinite/safe life approaches provide an over-conservative recommendation for the allowable strength and lifetime, which hinders the lightweight design of modern railway vehicles. In this study, to ensure the reliability and durability of a brake unit bracket, an attempt was made to integrate the nominal stress method and an advanced damage tolerance method. First, a complex bogie frame was modelled using solid elements instead of plate and beam elements. A hot spot stress region on the bracket was found under an eight-stage load spectrum obtained from the Wuhan–Guangzhou high-speed railway line. Based on the probability of foreign damage, a semi-elliptical surface crack was then assumed for residual life assessment. The results obtained by the cumulative damage and damage tolerance methods show that the brake unit bracket can operate for over 30 years. Moreover, even if a 2-mm depth crack exists, the brake unit bracket can be safely operated for more than 2.27 years, with the hope that the crack can be detected in subsequent maintenance procedures. Finally, an appropriate safety margin was suggested which provides a basis for the life prediction and durability assessment of brake unit brackets of high-speed railways.

Progress in high-speed train technology around the world

This is a review of high-speed train development in the sense of technology advances all over the world. Three generations of high-speed trains are classified according to their technical characteristics and maximum operating speed. Emphasis is given to the newly developed high-speed train in China, CRH380. The theoretical foundations and future development of CRH380 are briefly discussed.

Hierarchical structured robust adaptive attitude controller design for reusable launch vehicles

Reentry attitude control for reusable launch vehicles （RLVs） is challenging due to the characters of fast nonlinear dy- namics and large flight envelop. A hierarchical structured attitude control system for an RLV is proposed and an unpowered RLV con- trol model is developed. Then, the hierarchical structured control frame consisting of attitude controller, compound control strategy and control allocation is presented. At the core of the design is a robust adaptive control （RAC） law based on dual loop time-scale separation. A radial basis function neural network （RBFNN） is implemented for compensation of uncertain model dynamics and external disturbances in the inner loop. And then the robust op- timization is applied in the outer loop to guarantee performance robustness. The overall control design frame retains the simplicity in design while simultaneously assuring the adaptive and robust performance. The hierarchical structured robust adaptive con- troller （HSRAC） incorporates flexibility into the design with regard to controller versatility to various reentry mission requirements. Simulation results show that the improved tracking performance is achieved by means of RAC.

Wear characteristics and prediction of wheel profiles in high-speed trains

Wheel/rail relationship is a fundamental problem of railway system. Wear of wheel profiles has great effect on vehicle performance. Thus, it is important not just for the analysis of wear characteristics but for its prediction. Actual wheel profiles of the high-speed trains on service were measured in the high-speed line and the wear characteristics were analyzed which came to the following results. The wear location was centralized from-15 mm to 25 mm. The maximum wear value appeared at the area of 5 mm from tread center far from wheel flange and it was less than 1.5 mm. Then, wheel wear was fitted to get the polynomial functions on different locations and operation mileages. A binary numerical prediction model was raised to predict wheel wear. The prediction model was proved by vehicle system dynamics and wheel/rail contact geometry. The results show that the prediction model can reflect wear characteristics of measured profiles and vehicle performances.

Research of inverse mathematical model to high-speed trains

Operation safety and stability of the train mainly depend on the interaction between the wheel and rail.Knowledge of wheel/rail contact force is important for vehicle control systems that aim to enhance vehicle stability and passenger safety.Since wheel/rail contact forces of high-speed train are very difficult to measure directly,a new estimation process for wheel/rail contact forces was introduced in this work.Based on the state space equation,dynamic programming methods and the Bellman principle of optimality,the main theoretical derivation of the inversion mathematical model was given.The new method overcomes the weakness of large fluctuations which exist in current inverse techniques.High-speed vehicle was chosen as the research object,accelerations of axle box as input conditions,10 degrees of freedom vertical vibration model and 17 degrees of freedom lateral vibration model were established,respectively.Under 250 km/h,the vertical and lateral wheel/rail forces were identified.From the time domain and frequency domain,the comparison of the results between inverse and SIMPACK models were given.The results show that the inverse mathematical model has high precision for inversing the wheel/rail contact forces of an operation high-speed vehicle.

Prediction of Aerothermal Environment and Heat Transfer for Hypersonic Vehicles with Different Aerodynamic Shapes Based on C++

This research paper discusses constructing a unified framework to develop a full-rate scheme for hypersonic heating calculations. The method uses a flow tracing technique with normal phase vector adjustment in a non-structured delineated grid combined with empirical formulations for convective heat transfer standing and non-standing heat flow engineering. This is done using dev-C++ programming in the C++ language environment. Comparisons of the aerodynamic thermal environment with wind tunnel experimental data for the Space Shuttle and Apollo return capsules and standing point heat transfer measurements for the Fire II return capsule was carried out in the hypersonic Mach number range of 6 - 35 Ma. The tests were carried out on an 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 processor with a valuable test time of 45 mins. The agreement is good, but due to the complexity of the space shuttle tail, the measurements are still subject to large errors compared to wind tunnel experiments. A comparison of the measured Fire-II return capsule standing-point heat values with the theory for calculating standing-point heat fluxes simulated using Fay & Riddell and wind tunnel experiments is provided to verify the validity of this procedure for hypersonic vehicle heat transfer prediction. The heat fluxes assessed using this method for different aerodynamic profiles of hypersonic vehicles agree very well with the theoretical solution.

Aerodynamic/control integrated optimization method for unpowered high-speed vehicle configuration design

The unpowered high-speed vehicle experiences a significant coupling between the disciplines of aerodynamics and control due to its characteristics of high flight speed and extensive maneuverability within large airspace.The conventional aircraft conceptual design process follows a sequential design approach,and there is an artificial separation between the disciplines of aerodynamics and control,neglecting the coupling effects arising from their interaction.As a result,this design process often requires extensive iterations over long periods when applied to high-speed vehicles,and may not be able to effectively achieve the desired design objectives.To enhance the overall performance and design efficiency of high-speed vehicles,this study integrates the concept of Active Control Technology(ACT)from modern aircraft into the philosophy of aerodynamic/control integrated optimization.Two integrated optimization strategies,with differences in coupling granularity,have been developed.Subsequently,these strategies are put into action on a biconical vehicle that operates at Mach 5.The results reveal that the comprehensive performance of the synthesis optimal model derived from the aerodynamic/control integrated optimization strategy is improved by 31.76%and 28.29%respectively compared to the base model under high-speed conditions,demonstrating the feasibility and effectiveness of the method and optimization strategies employed.Moreover,in comparison to the single-stage strategy,the multi-stage strategy takes into deeper consideration the impact of control capacity.As a result,the control performance of the synthesis opti-mal model derived from the multi-stage strategy improves by 13.99%,whereas the single-stage strategy only achieves a 5.79%improvement.This method enables a fruitful interaction between aerodynamic configuration design and control system design,leading to enhanced overall performance and design efficiency.Furthermore,it improves the controllability of high-speed vehicles,mitigating the risk of mission failure resulting from an ineffective control system.