Slip-stick vibration suppression by modal state control for traction drive-trains

The increasing performance of modern electric locomotives results in slip-stick vibrations in the traction drive-train due to wheel-rail contact. This can be remedied by the introduction of a novel modal state control scheme for active oscillation damping to avoid the loss of traction force caused by passive slip readhesion control. This paper describes the basic concept of the active control scheme enhanced with anti-windup and a simple starting method that can use any standard controller. The limits of the active control scheme are pointed out and are circumvented by coupling with passive readhesion control. The resulting control scheme benefits from the advantages of both control concepts utilized with different adhesion force gradients. Finally, the predicted performance of the novel control is compared with the installed control concepts based on several test runs with a European high-performance locomotive.