Simulation of freight trains with up to three traction units in radio communication

2021 AIAS2020 - 1-3 September - Virtual Conference

Cantone L.
University of Rome Tor Vergata,
Dept. of Enterprise Engineering “Mario Lucertini”,
Via del Politecnico 1, 00133, Rome, Italy

Introduction

• SERA: increasing efficiency for freight trains in Europe.
• OC Marathon2Operation (M2O, H2020 N. 826087) and CFM FR8RAIL II together to demonstrate the feasibility of Distributed Power System (DPS)
  • Simulations, safety and assessment
• Radio wireless communication, based on GSM-R and LTE (as bridge to future FRMCS standard)
• TrainDy software, initially developed by the University of Rome Tor Vergata and Faiveley Transport of Italy, from 2007 owned and developed by UIC.
• Application of Leaflet UIC 421 methodology to demonstrate the safety in terms of in-train forces (stopping distance analysed as well).
  • Comparison of standard and DPS trains performances on level and up/down hill tracks, under different operating conditions.

Some results of M2O have been presented at EuroBrake 2021 conference on the 18th of May 2021.

The results of M2O project have been found very interesting for the applications to rail freight sectors by the session moderators.

The paper synthetizes the results of deliverable 3.3 of M2O.

Hereafter the conclusions of the presentation:

• Distributed Power System (DPS) always improves the safety of freight trains when the radio communication is available, with respect to Longitudinal Compression Forces (LCF).
• When there is a radio communication loss, the DPS train is usually better than the reference (REF) train with respect to LCF
• The scenarios in which this conclusion is not valid involve an initial application of Electro-Dynamic (ED) braking and the radio communication loss.
  • The gradient removal of ED brake is a parameter that affects the LCF.
  • Moreover, these train operations assume the need for a system intervention (e. g. traction removal) only after 2.5 s of radio communication loss. This relatively long-time gap, and additional simulations promised even longer time gaps up to 10s, is promising in terms of a robust train operation without too many system interventions.
  • There is no need to change the TU “status” (whichever traction or braking) because of a short-time communication loss unless a pressure drop is detected in brake pipe.

Link to the EuroBrake 2021 programme: https://fisita-wix.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/promo/EuroBrake-2021-Final-Programme.pdf

One train, three locomotives, two controlled remotely by the leading loco – it's all made possible by a Distributed Power System. You can see how this works in the video.

https://www.dbcargo.com/rail-de-en/logistics-news/dps-distributed-power-system-the-way-to-the-long-train-6224036

Foreword

On 18 December 2020, the Final event of the Shift2Rail JU funded IP5 Marathon2Operation Project took place remotely. This event concluded 2 years of exciting work with dedicated partners and gave them the opportunity to present their results to more than 90 participants coming from the European railway community and beyond.

This newsletter sums up the main results achieved by the Marathon2Operations Consortium. All project documents, presentations delivered during the final event and deliverables can be found on the project website at: https://www.marathon2operation.eu/web/.

See the Full Version in .pdf format

The Shift2Rail JU Marathon2Operation project held its final event on 18 December 2020 remotely. The event was attended by more than 90 participants from 12 European countries.

Marathon2Operation is a 2-year Shift2Rail project led by the University of Rome Tor Vergata in collaboration with 5 other European Partners: New Opera, the International Union of Railways (UIC), Nier Ingegneria S.p.A., TÜV SÜD and Funkwerk Systems GmbH. M2O is ending in December 2020.

All along the project life, there has been an intensive collaboration with FR8RAIL II project to contribute to Distributed power trains with up to 4 Traction Units (TUs) and up to 1500m length based on GSM-R radio communication and on TrainDy software to ensure the safety of such consists and specifically of the final test campaign of FR8RAIL II. The collaboration with FR8RAIL II was necessary as a Traction unit manufacturer, a braking company and a Railway undertaking were among the partners of FR8RAIL II.

M2O was responsible for the radio communication system, the simulation of the Longitudinal Train Dynamics (LTD) during the operations, the safety analysis of such trains and for the assessment of these studies and of the global consists to be tested during the test campaign of FR8RAIL II.

During the final event the partners of M2O have presented the various steps of their work.

(Press Release, Friday 18th December 2020)

See the Full Version in .pdf format

Foreword

Marathon to Operation (M2O) project has been building on the results of previous FP7project Marathon, followed by DynaFreight and FFL4E S2R projects. M2O collaborated with FR8RAIl II CFM partners project to develop Long Trains with Distributed power (DPS) involving up to 4 traction units (TUs) for a length reaching 1500m. All guided TUs were to be remotely controlled by GMS-R (two TU setup) or LTE (up to four TU setup). LTE could be an intermediate step towards the future FRMCS communication solution for which more details will be issued soon.

This newsletter sums up the main results achieved by the Marathon2Operations Consortium. All project documents and deliverables can be found on the project website at: https://www.marathon2operation.eu/web/.

DOWNLOAD (M2O) NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2020 (.pdf 374Kb.)

Marathon2Operation Project (M2O) Amendment

M2O project has been amended recently. The main reason for this amendment has been the impossibility to manage more than 2 Traction Units (TUs) with GSM-R radio. For this reason, the FR8RAIL II tests foreseen for the beginning of 2021, will employ a radio solution based on LTE. Moreover, the Amendment has more clearly distinguished the different responsibilities of FR8RAIL II and M2O Partners for the safety of experimental tests.

Therefore, the M2O is going towards its conclusion: the final event will be held online, and it will be organised by the UIC. A separate communication will follow on this topic.

Main results achieved so far by M2O project are:

About Train simulations: List of trains configurations that are safer than the trains currently operated (D3.1). These DPS trains implement GSM-R radio (relevant up to 2 TUs and 1200 m) and LTE radio (relevant up to 4 TUs and 1500 m). Railway Undertakings can directly compute the economic benefits of these solutions according to their freight traffic.

About Safety analysis: Development of the preliminary hazard analysis for the entire Integrated system, including long freight trains in their operational context and development of the hazard analysis for the specific DPS train implementation (D2.3). Carried out analysis also covers a set of mitigations to operate DPS trains safely.

PRESS RELEASE
Brussels, 28 July 2020

Shift2Rail awards 19 grants for its Call for Proposals 2020

19 projects worth €147.7 million will be funded under the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking 2020 Call for Proposals for research & innovation activities. Shift2Rail’s co-funding will amount up to €75.4 million. The new projects will deliver key Shift2Rail results through technological demonstrators and pave the way to the successor programme.

The Shift2Rail JU Members will undertake 8 of the new projects selected in the Call for Proposals 2020. Members’ activities will have a total value of €125.7 million, co-funded by Shift2Rail up to €55.4 million.
11 additional Open Call projects, open for applications to any entity in the EU and associated Horizon 2020 countries, have also been selected for funding. These projects have a total value of €22.0 million, of which up to €20.0 million will be funded by the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking.

In total, 242 participants will develop new solutions for railway systems under the 2020 Call for Proposals. SMEs represent 29% of the entities selected in the Open Call projects.

Carlo Borghini, Executive Director of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking, expressed his high expectations for the selected projects: “This is an important transition moment for Shift2Rail and the rail research and innovation community at large. These new projects are our ticket to moving into the successor programme and beyond R&I to market uptake of our forward-looking solutions. At a time when the expectations from rail are high, we stand ready to work together with our Members and partners on these new projects which will start in an unprecedented context, contributing to Europe’s recovery from the Coronavirus crisis as well as the achievement of the European Green Deal goals.’’

With this Call for Proposals, and in only 4 years, Shift2Rail will have invested its full budget of €0.4 billion cumulatively in research and innovation activities (including Lighthouse Projects) accomplishing its mandate to recover the initial delays and accelerate the delivery of the Programme’s innovative solutions. This will result in research and innovation activities performed by the Members and third parties estimated at €1.0 billion by the end of the Programme, with a measurable leverage effect: a tangible answer to European policy objectives expressing the needs of rail clients and freight businesses.

The results achieved so far, brought to the technological demonstrators’ level by these new projects, are a sign of the sector’s deep commitment towards a major rail system transformation for Europe’s most smart and green mobility and transport for freight and passengers: the sector’s High Level Paper on Transforming Europe’s Rail System is a strong confirmation of this endeavour.

About the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking
Shift2Rail is the first European rail public private partnership tasked with developing strategically focused research and innovation (R&I) and market-driven solutions, integrating these to create the railway systems of the future. With a total value of €920 million for the period 2014-2020, funded through the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union, Shift2Rail is promoting the competitiveness of the European rail industry, ensuring the attractiveness of rail as a safe and sustainable low carbon transport mode. This way, Shift2Rail aims to meet the changing transport/mobility needs of EU citizens and the economy.

Curious to learn more about multimodal journey planning, offer building, booking, issuing, ticketing, validation and location-based experiences? Join us to see all this and more in our Shift2Rail webinar series on seamless door-to-door travel tools!

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