PhD students

Sundar Shrestha

CQUniversity (Supervisor: Maksym Spiryagin)

PhD topic – Estimation of adhesion conditions between wheels and rails for the development of advanced braking control systems

Research summary

This research proposes the development of a real-time on-board device which allows an enhanced and lower-cost contact detection process under changing operational conditions in real-time. This improvement in the monitoring of contact conditions will provide enhancement to rail vehicle braking and traction performance, wear reduction, noise reduction and operational safety.

Expected completion date

January 2021

Key achievements

• Low-cost novel real-time algorithm to estimate the coefficient of adhesion at wheel-rail contact interface based on the information obtained from the advanced sensor data processing.
• Improved algorithm for Wheel Slide Protection (WSP) controller to maximise the utilisation of available adhesion based on a hybrid simulation model for the safety performance and to minimise train braking distance.
• Innovative adhesion monitoring algorithm based on the analysis of rolling noise from the wheel-rail contact interface.
• Provisional patent application “Adhesion System of a Rail Vehicle for Improvement of Brake System Performance” is prepared for lodgement.

Publications

Shrestha, S., Koirala, A., Spiryagin, M. and Wu, Q. Wheel-rail interface condition estimation via acoustic sensors, in Joint Rail Conference JRC2020, 2020, [online access] pp. 1–6.

Shrestha, S., Spiryagin, M. and Wu, Q. Friction condition characterization for rail vehicle advanced braking system, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, vol. 134, p. 106324, Dec. 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.ymssp.2019.106324.

Shrestha, S., Spiryagin, M. and Wu, Q. Real-time multibody modeling and simulation of a scaled bogie test rig, Railway Engineering Science, pp. 1–14, 2020, doi: 10.1007/s40534-020-00213-y.

Shrestha, S., Spiryagin, M. and Wu, Q. Variable control setting to enhance rail vehicle braking safety, in Joint Rail Conference JRC2020, 2020, [online access] pp. 1–6.

Shrestha, S., Wu, Q. and Spiryagin, M. Review of adhesion estimation approach for rail vehicles, International Journal of Rail Transportation, vol. 7, no. 2. Taylor and Francis Ltd., pp. 79–102, 03-Apr-2019, doi: 10.1080/23248378.2018.1513344.

Shrestha, S., Wu, Q. and Spiryagin, M. Wheel-rail contact modelling for real-time adhesion estimation systems with consideration of bogie dynamics, in 11th International Conference on Contact Mechanics and Wear of Rail/Wheel Systems, 2018, pp. 862–869.