Measurement of tractive force and the new maximum tractive force control by the newly developed tractive force measurement equipment

The acceleration and deceleration rate of a train depends on the tractive force. When the wheels of a train slip on the rails, the torque is decreased to avoid continuous slipping. This is done because the tractive coefficient between the wheels and the rails has a peak at a certain slip velocity. But this adhesive phenomenon has not been clearly examined or analyzed. For this purpose, we have developed new tractive test equipment. In this paper, we measure the tractive force with this equipment, and clarify the adhesive phenomenon. Then we propose new tractive force control and verify the effectiveness of this control scheme.