• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.494-502
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• 2011

Bimodal tram is designed to run on a dedicated path in automatic mode using a magnetic track system in order to realize a combination of the accessibility of a bus and the constant regularity of a railroad. This paper presents design and test results of the series hybrid propulsion system of the bimodal tram on both test track and public road, which uses CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) engine and Lithium polymer battery pack. This paper describes the real-time data measuring equipment for the series hybrid propulsion system of the bimodal tram. Using this measurement equipment, the performance of the prototype vehicle's driving on test track and public road was verified and the fuel consumption and the efficiency of CNG engine have been investigated.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.979-983
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• 2008

A bi-modal tram can travel in not only dedicated way but also road so as to reduce construction costs and increase vehicle operation efficiency, whose passenger capacity is 2,500 to 7,000 persons/direction/hour. A bi-modal has an electronic guidance system that knows the location and route of the vehicle, and uses magnetic markers in the road surface for reference. Since a bi-modal tram will be operated in the downtown area, there is some possibility that strong wind occurred between high-rise buildings can produce sudden lateral movement (displacement) of the vehicle to influence its automatic operation controlled by electronic guidance system. For bi-modal tram in the automatic operation mode, lateral movements occurred by strong wind were calculated and analyzed in the dynamic model developed by using the ADAMS. Some useful relations among vehicle speeds, wind speeds, and lateral behaviors were discussed in this paper.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.584-589
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• 2008

A bi-modal tram has been developing to consist of articulated-two cars propelled by CNG hybrid (series type) in Korea since 2003. All wheels are driven by electrical motors independently, which can eliminate differential gears to reduce turning radius and make low floor to provide the old and the handicapped with easy access. In the bi-modal tram, therefore, reduction gear unit is key technology to make low floor and drive wheels independently. This study was aimed at performance evaluations of the reduction gear unit for the bi-modal tram. Oil leakage, oil temperature, vibration, acoustic noise in idle operations were measured for the reduction gear unit of the bimodal tram.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.78-81
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• 2011

Generally, vehicle is insulated from the earth by rubber tire which is intrinsically the insulation material. The electrical ground of vehicle was floated in the sense of electric potential over the electric power sources. First of all, the floated electrical ground of vehicle should be equipotentially connected with the (-) line of electrical equipment. Bimodal tram has the different kinds of electric system. They must be kept insulated to each other electrically. When there is some unbalanced event or connection between them, it will invoke some errors or breakdown to electrical devices including sensors and actuators. This paper has investigated the floating ground effect of bimodal tram built with composite body and shown the effect according to the unbalanced ground of vehicle and the connection between different electric systems.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.301-306
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• 2011

The rear of the vehicle generally overhangs the rear axle. As a result, the rear of a vehicle swings to the outside of the rear axle(rear swing-out). In front steering vehicles, rear swing-out is not important because rear swing-out values measured outside the rear edge are relatively small. However, in the case of the bimodal tram with AWS(all wheel steering), the rear swing-out values increase because of the rear steering at a reverse phase angle. Off-tracking is defined as the radial offset between the path of the centerline of the front axle and the path of the centerline of the following axle. In this paper, in addition to determine the turning performance of bimodal tram with AWS, turning radius, swing-out, off-tracking and swept path width were also investigated.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.57-61
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• 2011

The bimodal tram was designed to drive on the dedicated track as well as on the public road. The position and speed are automatically controlled on the dedicated track by the onboard computer, whereas they are manually controlled by driver like motor vehicles on the public road. The ride comfort the passengers feel and the effect of the vibration generated during driving on the passenger's health, comfortableness and motion sickness were evaluated with driving the bimodal tram prototype in automatic and manual mode, respectively. The test was done in automatic mode on the test track with various load conditions while it was done in manual mode on the public road with empty load.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.51-56
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• 2011

The train travels on the track and, thus, the rear wheels precisely follow the paths of the front wheels. On the contrary, in the vehicles running on the road like automobiles, buses and trucks, the front wheels try to drag the rear ones toward them and across the inside of the curve. Off-tracking is defined as the radial offset between the path of the centerline of the front axle and the path of the centerline of the following axle. In the case of the bimodal tram with AWS(all wheel steering), the off-tracking decrease but the rear swing-out values increase because of the rear steering at the reverse phase angle. Thus, in order to determine the swept path width, maximum road width at the minimum turning radius, off-tracking and swing-out should be considered for the bimodal tram. In this paper, trajectory simulations were carried out for the various condition such as front steering, front and rear steering and suppression of swing-out to optimize the swept path width.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2011.07a
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• pp.2192-2193
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• 2011

VCU(Vehicle Control Unit) was developed to decrease the wire weight and make it easy to control the power of ECU in bimodal tram. VCU consists of CC(Central Computer), DU(Display Unit), TU(Terminal Unit) with PCB. CC is a main controller with progamming and DU displays the status with graphic symbols and letters. TU with PCB inputs and output the voltage controlled by CC. They communicate with CAN(Controller Area Network). VCU had been verified with software reliability verification test and environmental hardware test. This paper has shown the test results and application to bimodal tram.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.1937-1942
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• 2007

Bimodal tram is being developed to be completed in 2010 and the infrastructure needs to be developed to make the operation in time. Through the study of infrastructure reflecting domestic condition, dedicated lane, station, connection center, automated operation, precise docking, ticketing system, information system, management system for operation and maintenance, and refueling station will be developed and their performances will be also verified through the construction of test bed. The economical, safe and environment-friendly operation of the bimodal tram will be established through the present study.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.455-460
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• 2010

Recent increases in the road and rail infrastructure, but the urban traffic problems such as accidents, congestion are increasing. The reason is that the high cost and lack of accessibility of railway transportation, the low quality of road services, and efficient transport links, etc.. The developments of a variety of policy and technical means are being performed to solve these problems. Among them, the Bimodal Tram which is combined low-cost of bus and high service quality of railway transportation is attracting attention. In this paper, the development status of technology and efficient utilization of operational and infrastructure elements for the operational efficiency, safety and passenger comfort of Bimodal Tram is studied.