Electronic differential system for tramcar vehicles

Railway vehicle dynamics is highly influenced by the kind of wheelset configuration, namelywith solid axle or independently rotating wheels. A desirable trade-off for tramcar dynamic performances consists in a vehicle equipped with solid wheelsets in tangent track, which is able then to switch to independently rotating wheels as soon as a sharpcurve is approaching.This paper describesthe development of a control system to be applied to independently rotating and motorised wheels, able to switch from IRWs to solid axle conditions (and vice versa), according to track characteristics and vehicle running conditions.A validated multibody model of the vehicle is adopted for the design of the control system, providing the possibility to properly implement and tune the control strategies to switch automatically from a wheelset configuration to another.