Energy simulation of hybrid inter-city trains

Reducing fuel consumption and environmental impacts are of particular importance to today's railway industry. Hybrid applications provide a relatively simple way to reduce the energy consumption of a vehicle. However, the effectiveness of this technology in railway applications is still largely unexplored, especially for inter-city railways, where duty cycles are often perceived less appropriate than other rail or road vehicle applications. Computer simulation techniques have been used to study and evaluate the potential of hybrid inter-city applications. The train-energy simulator (TrEN) at Imperial College London, is described. A prototype hybrid inter-city train that uses a battery as its energy storage device is studied. Several key parameters and configurations of this train, such as battery capacity, vehicle braking mode, controlalgorithm and energy management strategy, are investigated. The simulation study suggests that compared with a reference diesel—electric vehicle, the potential for fuel consumption reduction under optimised configurations that the hybrid inter-city train offers is significant.