In order to improve the riding comfort of railway vehicles, it has become essential to suppress the vertical bending vibration of cardbodies. Therefore, we have proposed a method to suppress the vibrations by using the damping force control system of axle dampers which are installed between bogie frames and wheel sets. We carried out excitation test under actual running condition using a carbody equivalent to an actual Shinkansen car fitted with variable axle dampers on a rolling stock test plant. The results show that this method effectively reduces the power spectral density (PSD) of acceleration on the floor and that the riding comfort level (L_T ) can be improved by about 4dB.

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