Abstract: The ride quality of whole train is studied. Based on the object-oriented modeling technique and the Matlab/Simulink, vertical and lateral nonlinear model of single vehicle, three connected vehicles and three articulated vehicles are built and their riding comforts are researched. The simulation results show that inter-vehicle suspension with optimized parameters can enhance ride quality greatly. And the articulated form is better than the simple inter-vehicle suspension structure. The experiments of a prototype composed of three articulated vehicles on vibration test rig shows that the articulated train can achieve excellent ride quality at 350 km/h.

Key words: Articulated, High-speed train, Ride quality