Imperial College London Department of Mechanical Engineering Improving the energy efficiency of high speed rail and life cycle comparison with other modes of transport Jing Zhou September 2014 Thesis submitted for the Diploma of Imperial College (DIC) PhD degree of Imperial College London 1 2 I declare that this written work is original work of which I am the sole author and written in my own words, except where other sources are acknowledged. 3 4 Copyright Declaration The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence. Researchers are free to copy, distribute or transmit the thesis on the condition that they attribute it, that they do not use it for commercial purposes and that they do not alter, transform or build upon it. For any reuse or redistribution, researchers must make clear to others the licence terms of this work. 5 6 Abstract The world energy crisis and global warming call for a reduction of energy consumption. High speed rail, increasingly viewed as an effective solution to inter-city passenger transportation challenge of the 21st century, has the significant ability of increasing passenger capacity and reducing journey time. The advent of high speed rail provided many research opportunities. So far studies have been contributed from different perspectives: economical, environmental, and technical. The main research gaps are: addressing the problem of the effects of route geometry on train energy consumption and quantifying the contributing factors towards differences in energy consumption between different types of high speed trains. In addition, this energy assessment cannot be based solely on the energy consumption in the operation phase. In the life cycle assessment of the whole railway system, the vehicle evaluation is relatively straightforward, but the infrastructure raises many difficult issues. In this thesis, an existing approach for modelling the traction energy of electric trains is developed and extended to simulate the train operation under different driving strategies. Baseline simulation is carried out to estimate the journey time and energy consumption of a High Speed 2(HS2) reference train running on the London-Birmingham proposed high speed route. The influence of route geometry and train configuration on energy consumption is investigated, based on the metric of energy consumption per passenger kilometre. Simulations are also carried out of different types of high speed rolling stock running on the proposed HS2 route, to identify the key areas of vehicle design which help to minimise the energy consumption of high speed rail travel. 7 The life cycle assessment of railway infrastructure is carried out in four stages of a whole life cycle: production, operation, maintenance and disposal, the influence of route parameters on life cycle cost is also investigated. More than 80% of the life cycle energy consumption comes from construction for both ballast track and slab track, at high/low traffic loads. Finally, high speed rail is compared with competing modes of transport, i.e. the aircraft, the automobile and the conventional train, in both operational energy efficiency and whole life cycle analysis. The high speed rail transportation has great advantage over the road and air transport, giving a reduction of carbon emission by roughly 95%, among which the operation stage contributes the largest reduction. 8 Acknowledgement Foremost, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisor Professor Roderick Smith, who continuously and convincingly conveyed a spirit of thinking in research. I’m hugely indebted to him for all the opportunities his gave to me. In addition, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Professor Ricardo Martinez-Botas for his continuous support of my Ph.D. study and research My thanks go to Professor Andrew McNaughton and his colleague in HS2 Ltd, Ms. Salma Begum and Mr. Thomas Williamson in particular. Without their help, it would be impossible for me to complete the simulations on which this thesis in based. I would like to thank the Department of Mechanical Engineering in National University of Singapore and Dr. Chua Kian Jon, for my hugely enjoyable and inspiring stay in Singapore. I’m very grateful to the Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI) in Japan and Dr. Tomoyuki Ogawa and Mr. Naoki Aihara in particular. I was very well looked after and learned a lot during my stay. I would like to acknowledge the financial support from China Scholarship Council and its staff, who gave me the opportunity to study in Imperial College under their sponsorship. 9 10 Content Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………..7 Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………....8 Contents………………………………………………………………………………………11 List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………..……17 List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………………27 Chapter 1: Introduction………………………………………………………………………31 1.1 High Speed Rail Systems around the World……………………………………………..32 1.2 General Overview of World Energy Development………………………………………35 1.2.1 Step Change due to the Industrial Revolution……………………………...……..35 1.2.2 The Kyoto Protocol ……………………………………....………………………42 1.3 Literature Review: Reduce Demand for Energy………………………………………45 1.3.1 Weight Reduction…………………………………………………………………49 1.3.2 Reduction of Aerodynamic Drag…………………………………………………52 1.3.3 Eco-driving…………………………………………………………………….….56 1.3.4 Regenerative Braking…………………...……………………………………...…59 1.4 Knowledge Gaps………………………………………………………………………60 1.5 Research Aims and Objectives…………………………………………………...……62 1.6 Approach………………………………………………………………………………63 1.7 Summary of Thesis………………………………………………………………….…63 References……………………………………………………………………………………66 Chapter 2: Methodology and HS2 Base Line Simulations…………………………………..73 2.1 Methodology……………………………………………………………………….….74 2.1.1 Tractive Force, Running Resistance & Braking Force……………………………74 2.1.2 Longitudinal Motion of the Vehicle………………………………………………80 11 2.1.3 Simulation Procedure……………………………………………………………..81 2.1.4 Operation Strategy………………………………………………………………..84 2.1.5 Simulation Setup………………………………………………………………….89 2.1.6 Basic Concepts in Energy Flow of the Train……………………………………..90 2.2 HS2 Base Line Simulation…………………………………………………………….93 2.2.1 Train Data…………………………………………………………………………93 2.2.2 Route Data………………………………………………………………..……….94 2.2.3 Simulation Results………………………………………………………………...95 2.2.4 Choice of Time Step………………………………………………………………97 2.2.5 Model Validation………………………………………………………………….97 2.2.6 Operation Strategy………………………………………………………………...99 2.2.7 Comparison with West Coast Main Line (WCML)……………………………100 2.3 Conclusions………………………………………………………………………….103 References…………………………………………………………………………………..104 Chapter 3: Influence of Route Geometry and Train Configuration on Energy Consumption………………………………………………………………………………..105 3.1 Train and Route Parameters Affecting Energy Consumption………………………..106 3.2 Influence of Route Geometry and Train Configuration for HS2 Reference Train…..114 3.2.1 Effects of Tunnels on Journey Time and Energy Consumption of High Speed Trains……………………………………………………………………………….…..116 3.2.2 Effects of Curvatures on Journey Time and Energy Consumption of High Speed Trains…………………………………………………………………………………...130 3.2.3 Effects of Railway Electrification on Journey Time and Energy Consumption of High Speed Trains………………………………………………………………….…..136 12 3.3 Conclusions………………………………………………………………………..143 References…………………………………………………………………………………..144 Chapter 4: Energy Comparison with Other High Speed Vehicles……………………….…147 4.1 Comparison with the Japanese Shinkansen High Speed Rails…………………….…148 4.1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………...148 4.1.2 Energy Modelling………………………………………………………………..149 4.1.3 Result Analysis……………………………………………………………….…155 4.2 Comparison with the China High Speed Rails…………………………...………......158 4.2.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………...158 4.2.2 Energy Modelling………………………………………………………………..160 4.2.3 Result Analysis………………………………………………………………….166 4.3 Comparison with TGV Duplex ……………………………………………………...168 4.3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………...168 4.3.2 Energy Modelling………………………………………………………………..169 4.3.3 Result Analysis……………………………………………………………….…174 4.4 Comparison with the Transrapid Maglev System ………………………………...…178 4.4.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………...……178 4.4.2 Energy Modelling………………………………………………………..………179 4.4.3 Simulations ………………………………………………………………..…….184 4.4.4 Result Analysis………………………………………………………………..…189 4.5 Discussion: A Review of High Speed Rail Experiences around the World…….……192 4.6 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………..197 References………………………………………………………………………………..199 13 Chapter 5: Life Cycle Assessment of High Speed Rail Infrastructure ……………….……203 5.1 Introduction……………………………………….……………………….…………204 5.2 Literature Review……………………………………………...……………………..209 5.3 Life Cycle Assessment of Railway Infrastructure……………………………………218 5.3.1 Objective ……………………………….……………………………….………219 5.3.2 Energy and Emissions in the Construction Phase of Railway Infrastructure……221 5.3.3 Energy and Emissions in the Maintenance Phase of Railway Infrastructure……232 5.3.4 Energy and Emissions in the Operation Phase of Railway Infrastructure………234 5.3.5 Energy and Emissions in the Disposal Phase of Railway Infrastructure……..…235 5.3.6 Summary of the Life Cycle Cost of Railway Infrastructure……..…………...…239 5.4 Scenario Study: Influence of Route and Operation Parameters on Life Cycle Cost…239 5.4.1 Definition of Functional Unit …………………………………………………...239