Comfort enhancement by an active vibration reduction system for a flexible railway car body

In order to improve the ride comfort of lightweight railway vehicles, an active vibration reduction system using piezo-stack actuators is proposed and studied in simulations. The system consists of actuators and sensors mounted on the vehicle car body. Via a feedback control loop, the output signals of the sensors which are measuring the flexible deformation of the car body generate a bending moment, which is directly applied to the car body by the actuators. This bending moment reduces the structural vibration of the vehicle car body. Simulations have shown that a significant reduction in the vibration level is achieved.