Derailment risk and dynamics of railway vehicles in curved tracks： Analysis of the effect of failed fasteners

The effect of the fastener＇s failure in a railway track on the dynamic forces produced in the wheel-rail contact is studied using the simulation software VAMPIRE to assess the derailment risk of two different vehicles in two curves with distinct characteristics. First, a 3D-FEM model of a real track is constructed, paying special attention to fasteners, and calibrated with displacement data obtained experimentally during a train passage. This numerical model is subsequently used to determine the track vertical and lateral stiffness. This study evidences that although the track can practically lose its lateral stiffness as a consequence of the failure of 7 consecutive fasteners, the vehicle stability would not be necessarily compromised in the flawed zone. Moreover, the results reveal that the uncompensated acceleration and the distance along which the fasteners are failed play an important role in the dynamic behavior of the vehicle-track system, influencing strongly the risk of derailment.

Two-layer formation-containment fault-tolerant control of fixed-wing UAV swarm for dynamic target tracking

This paper tackles the formation-containment control problem of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)swarm with model uncertainties for dynamic target tracking in three-dimensional space in the faulty case of UAVs’actuator and sensor.The fixed-wing UAV swarm under consideration is organized as a“multi-leader-multi-follower”structure,in which only several leaders can obtain the dynamic target information while others only receive the neighbors’information through the communication network.To simultaneously realize the formation,containment,and dynamic target tracking,a two-layer control framework is adopted to decouple the problem into two subproblems:reference trajectory generation and trajectory tracking.In the upper layer,a distributed finite-time estimator(DFTE)is proposed to generate each UAV’s reference trajectory in accordance with the control objective.Subsequently,a distributed composite robust fault-tolerant trajectory tracking controller is developed in the lower layer,where a novel adaptive extended super-twisting(AESTW)algorithm with a finite-time extended state observer(FTESO)is involved in solving the robust trajectory tracking control problem under model uncertainties,actuator,and sensor faults.The proposed controller simultaneously guarantees rapidness and enhances the system’s robustness with fewer chattering effects.Finally,corresponding simulations are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness and competitiveness of the proposed two-layer fault-tolerant cooperative control scheme.

Generalization of the Fourier transform-based method for calculating the response of a periodic railway track subject to a moving harmonic load

A Fourier transform-based method has been developed for calculating the response of a railway track as an infinitely long uniform periodic structure subject to moving or stationary harmonic loads. The track may become a non-uniform periodic structure by, for example, rail dampers which are installed between sleepers to control rolling noise and roughness growth. The period of the structure may become greater than the sleeper spacing. For those new situations, the current version of the method cannot be directly applied; it must be generalized and this is the aim of this paper. Generalization is performed by applying periodic conditions to each type of support and summarizing contributions from all types of support. Responses of the rail, sleeper, and damper are all formulated as an inverse Fourier transform from wavenumber domain to spatial domain. The generalized method is applied to investigate dynamics of a typical track with rail dampers of particular design. It is found that the rail dampers can significantly suppress the pinned-pinned vibration of the original track, widen the stop bands and increase vibration decay rate along the rail. However, it is also found that a new pinned-pinned mode is created by the dampers and between about 450 and 1,300 Hz dampers vibrate stronger than the rail, making noise radiation from the dampers a potential issue. These concerns must be fully investigated in the future. The formulae presented in this paper provide a powerful tool to do that.

On dynamic analysis method for large-scale train-track-substructure interaction

Train–track–substructure dynamic interaction is an extension of the vehicle–track coupled dynamics.It contributes to evaluate dynamic interaction and performance between train–track system and its substructures.For the first time,this work devotes to presenting engineering practical methods for modeling and solving such large-scale train–track–substructure interaction systems from a unified viewpoint.In this study,a train consists of several multi-rigid-body vehicles,and the track is modeled by various finite elements.The track length needs only satisfy the length of a train plus boundary length at two sides,despite how long the train moves on the track.The substructures and their interaction matrices to the upper track are established as independent modules,with no need for additionally building the track structures above substructures,and accordingly saving computational cost.Track–substructure local coordinates are defined to assist the confirming of the overlapped portions between the train–track system and the substructural system to effectively combine the cyclic calculation and iterative solution procedures.The advancement of this model lies in its convenience,efficiency and accuracy in continuously considering the vibration participation of multi-types of substructures against the moving of a train on the track.Numerical examples have shown the effectiveness of this method;besides,influence of substructures on train–track dynamic behaviors is illustrated accompanied by clarifying excitation difference of different track irregularity spectrums.

Digital implementation and analysis of a high dynamic frequency tracking loop

In the wireless guidance system, the signals that receiver received has obvious Doppler shift for the high dynamic characteristic of the carrier. A new solution of carrier frequency tracking loop with frequency modifying system is put forward. The characteristic of cross product auto frequency control and the second order loop filter in this loop are analyzed. The simulation shows that this loop can accomplish frequency tracking well in high dynamic circumstance.

Development of a simulation model for dynamic derailment analysis of high-speed trains

The running safety of high-speed trains has become a major concern of the current railway research with the rapid development of high-speed railways around the world.The basic safety requirement is to prevent the derailment.The root causes of the dynamic derailment of highspeed trains operating in severe environments are not easy to identify using the field tests or laboratory experiments.Numerical simulation using an advanced train–track interaction model is a highly efficient and low-cost approach to investigate the dynamic derailment behavior and mechanism of high-speed trains.This paper presents a three-dimensional dynamic model of a high-speed train coupled with a ballast track for dynamic derailment analysis.The model considers a train composed of multiple vehicles and the nonlinear inter-vehicle connections.The ballast track model consists of rails,fastenings,sleepers,ballasts,and roadbed,which are modeled by Euler beams,nonlinear spring-damper elements,equivalent ballast bodies,and continuous viscoelastic elements,in which the modal superposition method was used to reduce the order of the partial differential equations of Euler beams.The commonly used derailment safety assessment criteria around the world are embedded in the simulation model.The train–track model was then used to investigate the dynamic derailment responses of a high-speed train passing over a buckled track,in which the derailmentmechanism and train running posture during the dynamic derailment process were analyzed in detail.The effects of train and track modelling on dynamic derailment analysis were also discussed.The numerical results indicate that the train and track modelling options have a significant effect on the dynamic derailment analysis.The inter-vehicle impacts and the track flexibility and nonlinearity should be considered in the dynamic derailment simulations.

Gas Film Disturbance Characteristics Analysis of High-Speed and High-Pressure Dry Gas Seal

The dry gas seal（DGS） has been widely used in high parameters centrifugal compressor, but the intense vibrations of shafting, especially in high-speed condition, usually result in DGS＇s failure. So the DGS＇s ability of resisting outside interference has become a determining factor of the further development of centrifugal compressor. However, the systematic researches of which about gas film disturbance characteristics of high parameters DGS are very little. In order to study gas film disturbance characteristics of high-speed and high-pressure spiral groove dry gas seal（S-DGS） with a flexibly mounted stator, rotor axial runout and misalignment are taken into consideration, and the finite difference method and analytical method are used to analyze the influence of gas film thickness disturbance on sealing performance parameters, what＇s more, the effects of many key factors on gas film thickness disturbance are systematically investigated. The results show that, when sealed pressure is 10.1MPa and seal face average linear velocity is 107.3 m/s, gas film thickness disturbance has a significant effect on leakage rate, but has relatively litter effect on open force; Excessively large excitation amplitude or excessively high excitation frequency can lead to severe gas film thickness disturbance; And it is beneficial to assure a smaller gas film thickness disturbance when the stator material density is between 3.1 g/cm3 to 8.4 g/cm3; Ensuring sealing performance while minimizing support axial stiffness and support axial damping can help to improve dynamic tracking property of dry gas seal. The proposed research provides the instruction to optimize dynamic tracking property of the DGS.

An image processing method for feature extraction and dynamic tracking of particle clusters in CFBs

A new image processing method based on the high-speed camera is proposed to identify,locate,and track clusters.The instantaneous characteristic parameters of particle clusters in the riser of the circu-lating fluidized bed(CFB)can be acquired,such as solids holdup,vertical velocity,lateral displacement,aspect ratio and near-circularity.Experiments were carried out with glass bead particles,river sand particles and FCC particles.The time series of images of gas-solid flow in a CFB riser with a 100 mm x 25 mm cross-section and 3.2 m in length were obtained using high-speed cameras.The k-means++clustering algorithm is utilized to identify the clusters,centroid is applied to locate the clusters,and the cross-correlation algorithm is employed to track the specific clusters and number them to get the instantaneous characteristic parameters.The results illustrate that the shapes of clusters in the center area are closest to circle,moving upwards at a uniform speed,while the clusters in the side-wall area are mostly elongated or long chain-like,moving slowly downwards.In the transition area,the clusters are more complex,moving upwards at a constant speed,and having large lateral displacement.The results show that the image processing method used in this study is successful in acquiring the dynamic and structural parameters of the clusters simultaneously.

Vibration response analysis of floating slab track supported by nonlinear quasi-zero-stiffness vibration isolators

To improve the low-frequency vibration reduction effect of a steel spring floating slab track(FST),nonlinear quasizero-stiffness(QZS)vibration isolators composed of positive stiffness elements(PSEs)and negative stiffness elements(NSEs)were used to support the FST.First,considering the mechanical characteristics of the nonlinear QZS vibration isolators and the dynamic displacement limit(3 mm)of the FST,the feasible parameter groups were studied with the nonlinear stiffness variation range and bearing capacity as evaluation indices.A vertical vehicle quasi-zero-stiffness floating slab track(QZS-FST)coupled dynamic model was then established.To obtain a reasonable nonlinear stiffness within a few millimeters,the original length of the NSEs must be analyzed first,because it chiefly determines the stiffness nonlinearity level.The compression length of the NSEs at the equilibrium position must be determined to obtain the low stiffness of the floating slab without vehicle load.Meanwhile,to meet the dynamic displacement limit of the FST,the PSE stiffness must be increased to obtain a higher stiffness at the critical dynamic displacement.Various stiffness groups for the PSEs and NSEs can provide the same dynamic bearing capacity and yet have a significantly different vibration reduction effect.Excessive stiffness nonlinearity levels cannot effectively improve the vibration reduction effect at the natural frequency.Furthermore,they also significantly amplify the vibrations above the natural frequency.In this paper,the vertical vibration acceleration level(VAL)of the floating slab and the supporting force of the FST can be decreased by 6.9 dB and 55%,respectively,at the resonance frequency.

Distributed best response dynamics for Nash equilibrium seeking in potential games

In this paper,we consider distributed Nash equilibrium(NE)seeking in potential games over a multi-agent network,where each agent can not observe the actions of all its rivals.Based on the best response dynamics,we design a distributed NE seeking algorithm by incorporating the non-smooth finite-time average tracking dynamics,where each agent only needs to know its own action and exchange information with its neighbours through a communication graph.We give a sufficient condition for the Lipschitz continuity of the best response mapping for potential games,and then prove the convergence of the proposed algorithm based on the Lyapunov theory.Numerical simulations are given to verify the resultandillustrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.

Behavior-based Autonomous Navigation and Formation Control of Mobile Robots in Unknown Cluttered Dynamic Environments with Dynamic Target Tracking

While different species in nature have safely solved the problem of navigation in a dynamic environment, this remains a challenging task for researchers around the world. The paper addresses the problem of autonomous navigation in an unknown dynamic environment for a single and a group of three wheeled omnidirectional mobile robots(TWOMRs). The robot has to track a dynamic target while avoiding dynamic obstacles and dynamic walls in an unknown and very dense environment. It adopts a behavior-based controller that consists of four behaviors: "target tracking", "obstacle avoidance", "dynamic wall following" and "avoid robots". The paper considers the problem of kinematic saturation. In addition, it introduces a strategy for predicting the velocity of dynamic obstacles based on two successive measurements of the ultrasonic sensors to calculate the velocity of the obstacle expressed in the sensor frame. Furthermore, the paper proposes a strategy to deal with dynamic walls even when they have U-like or V-like shapes. The approach can also deal with the formation control of a group of robots based on the leader-follower structure and the behavior-based control, where the robots have to get together and maintain a given formation while navigating toward the target, avoiding obstacles and walls in a dynamic environment. The effectiveness of the proposed approaches is demonstrated via simulation.

Obstacle-circumventing adaptive control of a four-wheeled mobile robot subjected to motion uncertainties

To achieve the collision-free trajectory tracking of the four-wheeled mobile robot(FMR),existing methods resolve the tracking control and obstacle avoidance separately.Guaranteeing the synergistic robustness and smooth navigation of mobile robots subjected to motion uncertainties in a dynamic environment using this non-cooperative processing method is difficult.To address this challenge,this paper proposes an obstacle-circumventing adaptive control(OCAC)framework.Specifically,a novel anti-disturbance terminal slide mode control with adaptive gains is formulated,incorporating specified control laws for different stages.This formulation guarantees rapid convergence and simultaneous chattering elimination.By introducing sub-target points,a new sub-target dynamic tracking regression obstacle avoidance strategy is presented to transfer the obstacle avoidance problem into a dynamic tracking one,thereby reducing the burden of local path searching while ensuring system stability during obstacle circumvention.Comparative experiments demonstrate that the proposed OCAC method can strengthen the convergence and obstacle avoidance efficiency of the concerned FMR system.

High dynamic output feedback robust control of cascaded extended state observer

High dynamic tracking performance is a key technical index of hydraulic flight motion simulator(HFMS).However,the strong nonlinearities,various model uncertainties and measurement noise in hydraulic actuation systems limit the high dynamic performance improvement.In this paper,the outer axis frame of a HFMS is taken as a case study and its nonlinear dynamic model with consideration of strong nonlinearities,matched and mismatched uncertainties is established.A novel cascaded extended state observer(ESO)is proposed to estimate the unavailable system states to avoid the adverse effect of measurement noise on control performance.Meanwhile,the designed cascaded ESO also produces estimates of matched and mismatched uncertainties.Then,an output feedback robust controller(OFRC)is proposed by integrating the cascaded ESO with a robust integral of the sign of the error(RISE)feedback based on the backstepping framework.The proposed controller achieves compensation of both matched and mismatched model uncertainties in an output feedback form.Theoretical analysis indicates that the proposed OFRC ensures the boundedness of all closed-loop system signals in the presence of matched and mismatched timevarying model uncertainties.Excellent asymptotic tracking performance can also be obtained when the model uncertainties are time-invariant.Comparative experimental results show that the proposed OFRC achieves significant performance improvement compared with the extensively employed PI control with velocity feedforward(VFPI).