Electro-pneumatic blended braking control of regenerative brake and air brake based on estimated adhesion coefficient

Abstract

Trains require high deceleration and stable traveling performance. Improvement in adhesion characteristics is, thus, very important for electric trains. We have previously proposed an anti-slip/skid re-adhesion control system that is based on a disturbance observer and possesses a high adhesion force utilization ratio. In the present work, we focus on the deceleration mode. Generally, a train has an electric regenerative brake (electric brake) and an air brake (mechanical brake). Under wet railway track conditions, the regenerative brake may be suspended because of the air brake response. This paper proposes a regenerative brake priority control and an electro-pneumatic blended braking control based on an estimated adhesion coefficient. Furthermore, this paper evaluates and discusses regenerative brake priority control using numerical simulations.