Research on road and railway vehicle systems

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The proposed research focuses on fundamental and application through analytical and experimental research on road and railway vehicle systems. Some of the ongoing, recently initiated and proposed topics with potentials for practical application include:  Suspension systems and isolators using advance passive and semi-active concepts (including MR and ER dampers) to enhance the performance in terms of ride, handling and dynamic wheel loads, and conflict between ride and handling. Appropriate controller needs to be established for such dampers in specific applications;  Handling: The current practice in the design of steering system uses a fixed ratio for the angles of inner and outer wheels and is based on low speed maneuvers. The applicant proposes research to develop speed dependent adaptive steering system that will significantly improve the handling performance as well as will significantly enhance the noise reduction and life of pneumatic tires; Stability: A normalized measure of roll instability which is not a function of vehicle or operational parameter are being established through extensive simulation studies. The proposed research will investigate application potentials of the measures and develop open and closed loop control strategies for early warning and stability enhancement devices for long freight vehicles where the instability initiated at the rear end often remains undetected until too late; Sensors: Applicant proposes to continue his effort in dynamic studies of  MEMS towards development of sensors for road and railway vehicle systems; Wheel-rail contact and dynamic forces resulting from wheel-rail defects as well as flats and corrugation have been a major concern for railway industry both for main- tenance and safety. The research proposes fundamental re-examination of wheel-rail contact models capable of predicting Wheel- rail dynamics. The proposed research will develop a radial spring based wheel model with improved rail model to compare with Hertizan model and experimental data. The developed vehicle-track model will be uti- lized towards response identification for a given defect and the development of smart wheelset to enhance early detection and in-time maintenance of railway wheelsets.