Validation of an anti-slip control method based on the angular acceleration of a wheel on a roller rig

This study deals with the validation of an anti-slip control method that is based on the acceleration of a wheel. The method uses the angular acceleration signal and a threshold value to prevent the wheel from a severe slip. Initially, the implemented method was tested with an experimental roller rig under several wheel-roller surface conditions (half-dry, wet and greasy). Then, the validity of the control algorithm was verified using the numerical model of a full-scale roller rig that is built via the MATLAB editor, with the simulation scenarios following the experiments. The results from both experiments and simulations confirm that the acceleration-based slip regulation controller prevents the excessive wheel slip and improves the traction performance of a rail vehicle. Moreover, it is observed that the performance of the controller could be further improved by properly setting the control parameters of the acceleration-based slip regulation controller.