An innovative straddle monorail track switch design for the personal rapid transit
by Chih-Hung G. Li; Zong Jun Lu
International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems (IJHVS), Vol. 28, No. 3, 2021

Abstract: An innovative track switch design is proposed for a straddle monorail system that may serve as a PRT system. Previously, a PRT system utilising the monorail design was thought impossible. Here we introduce onboard guide wheels on the monorail vehicles to be the only movable parts that direct the cars to different paths. Each vehicle activates its own switching mechanism and does not need to wait for the movement of the heavy track beams anymore. Guideways and ground rails accommodated by a switch platform are designed to replace the monorail track beams. To verify the system performance, a model monorail loop and a vehicle were built for testing. Test results and analyses show that the monorail vehicles have enough momentum to traverse the switch area without power, and the required headway for the proposed system is much less than the target of 10 seconds.

Online publication date: Fri, 10-Sep-2021

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems (IJHVS):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com