Energy Efficiency Improvement Concept for Autonomous Locomotives

The growing attention to the issues of increasing energy efficiency of railway transport results in suggesting various designs of traction rolling stock with the most advanced technical solutions, but, unfortunately, many of them remain only at the development or prototype stage.The analysis of operating experience of existing mainline locomotives is proposed to help to develop fundamental principles of the concept of improving the energy efficiency of autonomous locomotives, aimed at creating a modular locomotive structure that makes it possible to coordinate operational loads with the operating modes of traction equipment to provide the best conditions for converting and transferring energy to wheel sets. Modern on-board systems of locomotives record many parameters that can be used both to determine the energy efficiency of the locomotive, as well as to evaluate new technical solutions aimed at the use of discrete-adaptive control of the modular design of diesel generator sets and traction motors under the operating conditions of mainline locomotives.Implementation of the proposed concept could make it possible to save up to 20 % of diesel fuel during transportation work, which was confirmed during testing a prototype locomotive.