A Tool for Prediction and Optimization of Railway Traction Systems with Respect to an Expected Mission Profile

Abstract

In this work a tool called TrEnO aimed at evaluating efficiency, power dissipation and consequently the thermal behavior of several components of the traction system is proposed, in order to quantify the overall energy consumption and to provide instruments for its optimization. The tool takes into account the main line design parameters and more in general the required mission profiles. The model has been designed and developed in Matlab-Simulink™ environment, for mainly two purposes: firstly, this environment allows to easily develop overall optimization procedures of both braking and traction systems with respect to one or more design parameters and some fixed constraints on the line and/or on train components. Secondly, this type of develop tool allows a fast prototyping of the developed procedures for RT code, to be used for on board, diagnostic and prognostic systems.