Synchronous transfer control method for long rails of high-speed railway

The rail of high-speed railway is 500 meters long and 30 tons in weight. Owing to the overweight and overlength characteristics of the rail, deformation occurs easily during transfer process. Thus, the clamping jaws should be synchronized in both longitudinal and lateral directions. The Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation vector control method is adopted to control the motors, which are used for driving the clamping jaws. The synchronization control of 32 longitudinal transfer motors is achieved using a mean coupling control strategy, while the synchronization control of 32 lateral transfer motors is achieved based on position feedback control by adopting the gray bus. Simulation results have shown that longitudinal synchronization error of the newly built transfer system is reduced by 74.06%, compared with the previous system without synchronous control strategies. Field test results have verified applicability of the synchronous transfer control method, which has achieved less synchronization errors. The maximum error value is less than 60 mm between adjacent clamping jaws, and the entire system’s synchronous error is less than 200 mm. The proposed transfer control method meets industry synchronization error standards and has demonstrated excellent practical performance. • Precise control of the long rail transfer process for high-speed railway is achieved using the SVPWM vector control method. • The mean coupling control strategy is adopted to achieve high-precision synchronization of 32 longitudinal motors, with an error reduction of 74.06% compared to traditional methods. • Based on the Gray bus position feedback, synchronization control of 32 lateral motors is achieved, with the maximum synchronization error between adjacent clamping jaws being less than 60 mm. • The maximum overall synchronization error during field testing is less than 200 mm, meeting industry standard requirements.