Standardization of driving cycles for shunting locomotives – reduction of energy consumption and optimized selection of new powertrain solutions

Modern rail vehicles are facing a lot of different challenges in order to be successful established on the market. Besides the primary requirements safety, fulfillment of the scope of performance and low investment costs, there are increasing requirements such as energy consumption, local emissions (global warming gases, harmful substances and noise), non-operation periods and maintenance intervals. All these requirements are crucial in case of customer satisfaction. For train operating companies as well as for locomotive manufactures one challenge in the development process is the meaningful simulation of real service profiles. For mainline traffic as well as for existing rail vehicles some mathematical-physical models already exist. These models are based on track topology and timetables. They show results for energy consumption and driving times. In the field of shunting, the fact that the topology, the towing capacity and a concrete timetable cannot be determined exactly, leads to a problem for the simulation and the evaluation of new powertrain solutions for shunting locomotives. This shows the need of an approved method to create standardized driving cycles. In the future there will be still the need of shunting locomotives for the passenger traffic and of course for rail cargo. This is shown by the constant number of shunting locomotives during the last years. As a consequence the field of shunting has a clearly recognizable share of the whole railroad energy consumption. Therefore it is obvious that optimized powertrain systems for shunting locomotives will have a clear influence on the reduction of CO2-Emissions and other exhaust emissions. The generation of standardized driving cycles is a necessary step for an efficient and reliable analysis of vehicles and powertrain systems. With the basis of defined characteristics and determined values, it is possible to create synthetic driving cycles with the use of mathematic algorithms for shunting locomotives. With this method the big range of operation profiles for shunting locomotives can be transferred into universal driving cycles without changing characteristics. The following method of creating driving cycles is validated by measurements with a H3-Hybrid locomotive from Alstom. With the development of new alternative powertrain solutions for rail vehicles the requirements, especially for the interfaces and the interaction between vehicle components, will increase. Standardized driving cycles will be helpful to adjust vehicle components and operating strategies and can increase the reliability of railroad vehicles

Экономический выбор параметров силовой установки гибридных локомотивов

The article is devoted to the choice of parameters of hybrid locomotive's power plant (primary source power and energy storage capacity) by the criterion of maximum economic efficiency. Since it is the use of energy storage device having a high market value, stimulates the search for rational costs for equipment, study the possibility to provide the most favorable ratio of performance, including through the analysis of development and consumption of energy by a diesel engine.Статья посвящена выбору параметров силовой установки гибридного локомотива (мощностипервичного источника и ёмкости накопителя энергии) по критерию максимума экономической эффективности. Поскольку именно применение накопителя энергии, имеющего высокую рыночную стоимость, стимулирует поиск рациональных затрат на оборудование, исследуется возможность обеспечить наиболее выгодное соотношение эксплуатационных характеристик, в том числе на основе анализа выработки и расходования энергии тепловозным двигателем

Technical and economic feasibility of a regenerative braking system with on-board energy storage for freight trains

This dissertation presents the technical and economic feasibility of a novel regenerative braking system (RBS) for the freight rail industry. A concept for a distributed RBS, integrated into the bogies of freight rail wagons, is proposed in a patent by Transnet SOC Ltd. The system allows for numerous RBSs to be installed on a single freight train, in a distributed manner, which collectively functions together to perform regenerative braking on the train with the goal of reducing the energy consumption of the train. The proposed system would, if implemented successfully, alleviate challenges and limitations with current RBS on diesel-powered freight trains. The patent also proposes that the RBS utilise mechanical energy storage by means of a high-speed flywheel which is connected to the train axles by a continuously variable transmission (CVT). The proposed RBS is conceptualised in this study by first establishing the requirements of the system from in-service train data, followed by the development of the subsystems to deliver workable concepts that would meet the requirements identified. A multi-domain, physical system simulation model is subsequently developed to establish the energy savings performance of each of the system concepts for typical freight train routes. The simulation results show that energy savings of between 10% and 24% can be realised by the feasible system concepts, depending on the configuration of the RBS concept and the duty-cycle of the specific train route. This proves the technical feasibility of the proposed system. Next, the proposed system and the candidate concepts are evaluated in economic terms. A cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is performed in which the cost and benefits over the life cycle of the RBS were combined into a single distribution and analysed. The decision criteria calculated in the CBA provide unanimous results as to which of the candidate concepts are economically feasible. It is shown that four of the candidate concepts, all utilising the same transmission topology incorporating a CVT with different flywheel configurations, are economically feasible. The RBS concepts show good return on investment and provide an internal rate of return (IRR) of 17% and a benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 2.13. These results therefore indicate that the proposed distributed RBS for freight trains is economically feasible and would deliver favourable financial returns if pursued.Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2018.Mechanical and Aeronautical EngineeringMEngUnrestricte

Applications of Genetic Algorithm and Its Variants in Rail Vehicle Systems: A Bibliometric Analysis and Comprehensive Review

Railway systems are time-varying and complex systems with nonlinear behaviors that require effective optimization techniques to achieve optimal performance. Evolutionary algorithms methods have emerged as a popular optimization technique in recent years due to their ability to handle complex, multi-objective issues of such systems. In this context, genetic algorithm (GA) as one of the powerful optimization techniques has been extensively used in the railway sector, and applied to various problems such as scheduling, routing, forecasting, design, maintenance, and allocation. This paper presents a review of the applications of GAs and their variants in the railway domain together with bibliometric analysis. The paper covers highly cited and recent studies that have employed GAs in the railway sector and discuss the challenges and opportunities of using GAs in railway optimization problems. Meanwhile, the most popular hybrid GAs as the combination of GA and other evolutionary algorithms methods such as particle swarm optimization (PSO), ant colony optimization (ACO), neural network (NN), fuzzy-logic control, etc with their dedicated application in the railway domain are discussed too. More than 250 publications are listed and classified to provide a comprehensive analysis and road map for experts and researchers in the field helping them to identify research gaps and opportunities

Transportation Systems Analysis and Assessment

The transportation system is the backbone of any social and economic system, and is also a very complex system in which users, transport means, technologies, services, and infrastructures have to cooperate with each other to achieve common and unique goals.The aim of this book is to present a general overview on some of the main challenges that transportation planners and decision makers are faced with. The book addresses different topics that range from user's behavior to travel demand simulation, from supply chain to the railway infrastructure capacity, from traffic safety issues to Life Cycle Assessment, and to strategies to make the transportation system more sustainable

Mapping innovation in the European transport sector : An assessment of R&D efforts and priorities, institutional capacities, drivers and barriers to innovation

The present document provides an overview of the innovation capacity of the European transport sectors. The analysis addresses transport-related innovation from three different angles. It identifies the drivers and barriers to innovation for the main transport sub-sectors; it assesses quantitative indicators through the detailed analysis of the main industrial R&D investors and public R&D priorities in transport; and it identifies the key actors for transport research and knowledge flows between them in order to detect shortcomings in the current institutional set-up of transport innovation. The analysis finds that despite the significant on-going research efforts in transport, largely driven by the automotive industry, the potential for systemic innovations that go beyond modal boundaries and leave the currently pre-dominant design are under-exploited due to prominent lock-in effects caused by infrastructure and the institutional set-up of the innovation systemsJRC.J.1-Economics of Climate Change, Energy and Transpor

Condition-Based Maintenance Implementation and Potential in USMC Ground Transport

NPS NRP Technical ReportCondition-Based Maintenance (CBM) has been successfully implemented in private-sector operations to reduce maintenance costs and asset downtime. USMC is currently transitioning to a CBM+ approach to maintenance, addressing its unique organizational and operating environment. This project identifies private-sector best practices and lessons learned most applicable to USMC as well as important hurdles for USMC adoption. It identifies maintenance and readiness metrics changes that may be relevant in future USMC and joint sustainment operations, taking into account both CBM and maintenance in an expeditionary environment.HQMC Installations and Logistics (I&L)This research is supported by funding from the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Research Program (PE 0605853N/2098). https://nps.edu/nrpChief of Naval Operations (CNO)Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

Functional, symbolic and societal frames for automobility: implications for sustainability transitions

Automobility refers to the continued, self-perpetuating dominance of privately-owned, gasoline-powered vehicles used primarily by single occupants—a system which clearly has broad environmental and societal impacts. Despite increasing societal interest in transitions to more sustainable transportation technologies, there has been little consideration of how such innovations might challenge, maintain or support different aspects of automobility, and what that means for technology deployment, transport policy, and user practices. To bring attention to the complexity and apparent durability of the automobility system, in this paper we develop a conceptual framework that explores automobility through a categorization of frames, or shared cultural meanings. This framework moves beyond the typical focus on private, functional considerations of user choice, financial costs and time use to also consider symbolic and societal frames of automobility that exist among users, non-users, industry, policymakers and other relevant social groups. We illustrate this framework with eight particular frames of automobility that fall into four broad categories: private-functional frames such as (1) cocooning and fortressing and (2) mobile digital offices; private-symbolic frames such as (3) gender identity and (4) social status; societal-functional frames such as (5) environmental stewardship and (6) suburbanization; and societal-symbolic frames such as (7) self-sufficiency and (8) innovative adopters. Finally, we start the process of discussing several transportation innovations in light of these automobility frames, namely electrified, autonomous and shared mobility—examining early evidence for which frames would be challenged or supported by such transitions. We believe that appreciation of the complex and varied frames of automobility can help to enrichen discussion of transitions and policy relating to sustainable transportation