Advanced engineering for railway rolling stock Moving to a new engineering dimension criticalsoftware.com
[email protected] White Paper Advanced Engineering for Railway Rolling Stock The liberalisation of rail transportation in Europe, which started in the 1990s, TRACTION CHAIN has changed the railway market. The flow of goods is moving quickly over ever What causes the train to accelerate and brake greater distances, while the logistics are becoming more complex. Consequently, are the adhesion forces that appear in the the manufacturers of rolling stock, namely locomotives, have to meet an wheel-rail contact. For these adhesion forces increasing number of demands due to altered statutory requirements, as well to effect, tractive or braking effort needs to as new standards and directives. be applied to the wheels. This torque must be generated in a motor or braking system that MARKET DEMANDS, AS WELL AS CUSTOMER FEEDBACK, MUST ALSO transforms a certain amount of energy into BE CHANNELLED INTO THE PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE. the required mechanical energy. As most freight traffic in Europe is cross-border, in order to provide a competitive advantage, locomotive manufacturers must overcome a major challenge: interoperable services. In order to operate cross-border, manufacturers must support different catenary voltages (15kV AC, 25kV AC, 3kV DC and 1.5kV DC), different types of pantographs, different train radio systems, different loading gauges, to name just a few of the many national Figure 2: Results of bad traction control requirements. The locomotive traction chain combines various equipment, allowing the locomotive to move. Railway traction is essentially supported by two different propulsion systems: electric or diesel.