JP2012179970A - Suspension control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce a heating value and power consumption in a suspension control device.SOLUTION: A coil spring 5 and a variable damping force damper 6 are installed between a vehicle body 2 and a truck 3 of a rolling stock 1. The control current is supplied from a controller 12 based on detection of acceleration sensors 10 and 11 and the vibration of the vehicle body 2 is controlled by regulating the damping force of the variable damping force damper 6. The variable damping force damper 6 is made to be a damping force inversion type that the damping force of expansion side/shrinkage side becomes hardware/software, software/software, and hardware/software according to the control current. When instructing the damping force characteristics to the software/software by the controller 12, a power saving value near the least current value is supplied to the variable damping force damper 6 as the control current in the control current area to become software/software. As a result, the damping force characteristics of the software/software is obtained by supplying the minimum current, and the heating value and the power consumption can be reduced.

Description

  The present invention relates to a suspension control device that suppresses vibrations by controlling the damping force of a damping force variable damper.

  For example, railroad vehicles generate various vibrations in the vertical and horizontal directions of the vehicle body due to irregularities in the track and disturbances caused by aerodynamic vibration during travel, but in recent years, the demand for suppression of these vibrations has increased along with the high-speed operation. Regardless of whether it is a Shinkansen or a conventional line, suppression of vibration is one of the important issues in terms of both riding comfort and running stability.

  Therefore, various suspension control devices using a damping force variable damper have been proposed in order to suppress vibration of the vehicle body during traveling. This type of suspension control device for a railway vehicle is equipped with a variable damping force damper having a variable damping coefficient according to a control current between a wheel shaft and a bogie, and between the bogie and the vehicle body, and detects a vehicle state such as an acceleration sensor. Based on the detection of various sensors, a control current is supplied by the controller according to the vibration state to appropriately adjust the damping force of the damping force variable damper, thereby suppressing the vibration of the vehicle body.

  Further, for example, as described in Patent Document 1, the damping force characteristics opposite to the expansion side and the contraction side of the piston rod, that is, the expansion side is hard (characteristic that generates a large damping force, the same applies hereinafter) and the contraction side is soft. There is known a so-called damping force reversal type damping force variable damper capable of selectively setting a combination of a characteristic that generates a small damping force (the same applies hereinafter) and a soft extension side and a hard shrink side. Such inversion-type damping force characteristics eliminate the need for determining the stroke of the piston rod when performing vibration control based on the so-called skyhook theory, thereby reducing the processing load on the controller.

  The damping force characteristics of the damping force reversal type damping force variable damper will be described with reference to FIG. Referring to the region indicated by H / S in FIG. 4, in the region where the control current I is 0 to I1, the damping force is hard on the expansion side (approximately constant at the maximum) and soft on the contraction side (approximately constant at the minimum). In the region where the control current I is from I1 to I2, the extension-side damping force decreases as the current increases. Referring to the region indicated by S / S in FIG. 4, in the region where the control current is from I2 to I3, the damping force characteristic is soft and almost constant on both the expansion side and the contraction side. Referring to the region indicated by S / H in FIG. 4, in the region where the control current I is from I3 to I4, the contraction-side damping force increases as the current increases, and when it exceeds I4, the contraction-side damping force increases. Hard (up to almost constant). Thus, depending on the control current, the damping force characteristic is hard on the expansion side and soft (H / S) on the contraction side, soft on both the expansion side and the contraction side (S / S), and soft on the expansion side and hard on the contraction side (S / H) can be selectively switched. When commanding soft (S / S) damping force characteristics on both the expansion side and the contraction side, a median value Ic from I2 to I3 is supplied as the control current I.

JP-A-11-82602

In the suspension control device as described above, it is desired to reduce the amount of heat generation and power consumption from the viewpoint of improving reliability and durability.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a suspension control apparatus that reduces the amount of heat generation and power consumption.

In order to solve the above-described problem, the present invention provides a suspension control device that suppresses vibration by supplying a control current by a controller and controlling a damping force of a damping force variable damper.
The damping force variable damper includes a first region having a large damping force on the expansion side and a small damping force on the contraction side, and a second region having a small damping force on both the expansion side and the contraction side according to the magnitude of the control current. The damping force characteristic changes in the order of the third region where the damping force on the expansion side is small and the damping force on the contraction side is large,
When the controller instructs the damping force characteristic of the second region to the damping force variable damper, the controller supplies a current of a power saving value close to a minimum current value in the second region as a control current. And

  According to the present invention, the calorific value and power consumption can be reduced.

It is a figure showing a schematic structure of an important section of a railcar to which a suspension control device concerning one embodiment of the present invention is applied. It is a graph which shows the damping force characteristic of the damping force variable damper used for the suspension control apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. 5 is a flowchart showing a control flow for supplying a control current to a damping force variable damper by a controller in the suspension control device according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a graph which shows the damping force characteristic of the conventional damping force reversal type damping force variable damper.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
A railway vehicle to which the suspension control apparatus according to the present embodiment is applied is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, the railway vehicle 1 has a carriage 3 attached to the front and rear of the vehicle body 2 (only the front part is shown), and each wheel 3 has two wheel shafts 4 attached thereto.

  The trolley 3 can be rotated about the vertical axis with respect to the vehicle body 2 and is connected so as to be able to be displaced in a vertical direction and a horizontal direction. The vehicle body 2 is elastically supported by a pair of coil springs 5. Note that the vehicle body 2 may be supported by using other spring means such as an air spring instead of the coil spring 5. A damping force variable damper 6 is connected between each carriage 3 and the vehicle body 2. The damping force variable dampers 6 are arranged on the left and right of each carriage 3, and are arranged at a total of four locations on the vehicle body 2, front and rear, left and right (referred to as the first to fourth axes). Further, each wheel shaft 4 is provided so as to be movable in the vertical direction with respect to the carriage 4, and a wheel spring 8 and a hydraulic damper 9 are mounted therebetween to elastically support the carriage 4.

  Spring and damper means (not shown) for elastically supporting each carriage 3 and the vehicle body 2 in the lateral (left-right) direction are provided. The hydraulic damper 9 and the damper means may be variable damping dampers capable of adjusting the damping force characteristics, similar to the damping force variable damper 6, but here the damping force characteristics are fixed for the sake of simplicity of explanation. A case where only the damping force characteristic of the damping force variable damper 6 is controlled will be described.

  The damping force variable damper 6 has a damping force switching valve such as a solenoid valve, and is a hydraulic damper capable of switching damping force characteristics in accordance with a control current, and has a reverse damping force characteristic shown in FIG. is there. That is, referring to the region (first region) indicated by H / S in FIG. 2, in the region where the control current I is 0 to I1, the expansion side is hard (maximum approximately constant) and the contraction side is soft (minimum approximately constant). In the region where the control current I is I1 to I2, the damping force on the extension side decreases as the current increases. Referring to the region indicated by S / S (second region) in FIG. 2, in the region where the control current I is from I2 to I3, both the expansion side and the contraction side are soft and almost constant. In addition, referring to the region indicated by S / H in FIG. 2 (third region), in the region where the control current I is from I3 to I4, the damping force on the contraction side increases as the current increases and exceeds I4. And the shrinking side is hard (up to almost constant). Thus, depending on the control current, the damping force characteristic is hard on the expansion side and soft (H / S) on the contraction side, soft on both the expansion side and the contraction side (S / S), and soft on the expansion side and hard on the contraction side (S / H) can be selectively switched. At this time, the area indicated by S / S in FIG. 2, that is, the area where the expansion side and the contraction side are soft (control current I = I2 to I3) is wider than that shown in FIG.

  In contrast to the characteristics shown in FIG. 2, the damping force characteristics of the damping force variable damper 6 are soft in the region where the control current I is small and soft on the shrink side, hard on the stretch side and soft on the shrink side in a large region. It may be. The damping force variable damper 6 is a fluid type in which a damper other than a hydraulic damper, for example, hydraulic oil is changed to another fluid (water, air, etc.) as long as the damping force characteristic as described above is obtained. It may be a damper, a friction damper, an electromagnetic damper using a damping force generated by operating a motor as a generator, or the like.

  The vehicle body 2 includes an acceleration sensor 10 (only the one disposed at the front is illustrated) that is disposed at the front, rear, left, and right of the vehicle body 2 to detect vertical acceleration, and is disposed at the center of the vehicle body in the vertical direction. Various sensors for detecting parameters relating to the vibration state of the vehicle body including an acceleration sensor 11 for detecting acceleration are provided. A controller 12 is provided for controlling the damping force of each damping force variable damper 6 based on parameters detected by these various sensors including the acceleration sensors 10 and 11.

  The controller 12 processes the parameters detected by the various sensors including the acceleration sensors 10 and 11 according to a predetermined logic rule based on a control theory for vibration suppression such as a Skyhook theory, for example, and performs a target of each damping force variable damper 6. A damping force is calculated, a control current value I is determined and supplied to each damping force variable damper 6. In the vibration control based on the skyhook theory, the damping force characteristics of each damping force variable damper 6 are soft according to the vibration state of the vehicle body 2 and the carriage 3, and the damping force with respect to the stroke in the vibration direction is soft, Switch so that the damping force is hard.

  At this time, when commanding soft (S / S) for the damping force characteristic of the damping force variable damper 6 on both the expansion side and the contraction side, the control current I is as small as possible in the range of I2 to I3, that is, the minimum value. It is supplied as a power saving value Is close to a certain I2.

A control flow for the controller 12 to supply the control current I to each damping force variable damper 6 will be described with reference to FIG.
Referring to FIG. 3, in step S1, detection signals from various sensors including acceleration sensors 10 and 11 are read, and the process proceeds to step S2. In step S2, filter processing such as LPF (low-pass filter) processing for removing noise components and HPF (high-pass filter) processing for removing drift components and steady deviation components is executed, and the process proceeds to step S3. In step S3, an abnormality determination process is performed, for example, the acceleration signal is excessively large or small, the acceleration sensor values are compared, and the process proceeds to step S4. In step S4, after integrating the acceleration signal, the target damping force of each damping force variable damper 6 is calculated so as to suppress the vibration of the vehicle body 2 by multiplying each gain and the like, and the process proceeds to step S5.

  In step S5, it is determined whether or not the command of the damping force characteristic for the first variable damping damper 6 is soft (S / S) on both the expansion side and the contraction side. When the command of the damping force characteristic is soft (S / S) on both the expansion side and the contraction side, the control current I of the damping force variable damper 6 of the first axis is set as the power saving value Is in step S6, and the process proceeds to step S7. When the command of the damping force characteristic is not soft (S / S) on both the expansion side and the contraction side, the control current I corresponding to the command is determined and the process proceeds to step S7.

  Similarly, for the damping force variable damper 6 of the second axis to the fourth axis, when the damping force characteristic command is soft (S / S) on both the expansion side and the contraction side, the control current I is set to the power saving value Is. If neither the expansion side nor the contraction side is soft (S / S), the control current I corresponding to the command is determined (steps S7 to S12), and the process proceeds to step S13. In step S13, the control current I is supplied from the first axis to each damping force variable damper 6 on the fourth axis.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described.
The controller processes the detection signals of the various sensors including the acceleration sensors 10 and 11 according to a predetermined logic rule based on the Skyhook theory or the like to determine the target damping force of the first axis to the fourth axis, The corresponding control current I is supplied to each damping force variable damper 6 to control the damping force, thereby suppressing the vibration of the vehicle body 2.

  At this time, when the command of the damping force characteristic is soft (S / S) on both the expansion side and the contraction side, the control current value I is set to the power saving value Is, so that the damping force variable damper 6 is attenuated with the minimum current. The force characteristics can be adjusted to soft (S / S) on both the expansion side and the contraction side, and the amount of heat generated by the solenoid and the power consumption can be reduced. In the vibration control of the vehicle body 2 of the railway vehicle, since a soft (S / S) damping force characteristic is generally commanded on both the expansion side and the contraction side when the vehicle is stopped, a conventional line having a relatively long stop time is used. When applied to this vehicle, the calorific value and power consumption can be effectively reduced.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the damping force characteristic of the damping force variable damper 6 is obtained as a control current I when the soft (S / S) region (I = I2 to I3) is wide on both the expansion side and the contraction side. By instructing the power saving value Is, it is possible to significantly reduce the amount of heat generation and power consumption as compared with the conventional example in which the median value Ic of this region is instructed.

  In the case of a damping force reversal type damping force variable damper described in Patent Document 1, generally, the fluid force of the working fluid is opened with respect to the valve body of a damping force adjusting valve such as a spool valve. Acts in the valve direction. As a result, when the piston speed is high to some extent, the flow rate of the working fluid increases, and the fluid force tends to move the valve body in the valve opening direction, so that both the expansion side and the contraction side are soft (S / S). There is a tendency that the region (control current I = I2 to I3) becomes wider. Therefore, even when an existing damping force variable damper such as that described in Patent Document 1 is used, by applying the control of the present invention, an effect of reducing the heat generation amount and power consumption is expected. be able to.

  In the above embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to the damping force variable damper 6 that suppresses the vibration in the vertical direction between the cart 3 and the vehicle body 2 has been described. The present invention can be similarly applied by using a damper that suppresses vibration in the lateral (left and right) direction or a damper that suppresses vibration between the carriage 3 and the wheel shaft 4 as a variable damping force damper.

  In the above embodiment, the case where the suspension control device of the present invention is applied to a railway vehicle is described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and other vehicles such as an automobile or a vibration control of a building is used. The present invention can be similarly applied to other suspension devices such as a device.

  6 ... Damping force variable damper, 12 ... Controller

Claims (1)

In a suspension control device that suppresses vibration by supplying a control current by a controller to control the damping force of the damping force variable damper,
The damping force variable damper includes a first region having a large damping force on the expansion side and a small damping force on the contraction side, and a second region having a small damping force on both the expansion side and the contraction side according to the magnitude of the control current. The damping force characteristic changes in the order of the third region where the damping force on the expansion side is small and the damping force on the contraction side is large,
When the controller instructs the damping force characteristic of the second region to the damping force variable damper, the controller supplies a current of a power saving value close to a minimum current value in the second region as a control current. Suspension control device.

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