Development of efficient models of Magnetic Braking Systems of railway vehicles

Abstract

In modern railway vehicles, the use of Magnetic Braking Systems is continuously increasing, because they are characterized by high braking performances and low energy consumptions. Hence, the study and the accurate modelling of Magnetic Braking Systems is a very important issue, because they significantly affect the dynamics of vehicle and electrical supply circuit. Usually, the performances of Magnetic Braking Systems are evaluated on test-rigs in order to reduce times and costs of testing phases. For this reason, the authors focus on the development of a complete 3D model of Magnetic Brake System test-rig (built in COMSOL), including all the electromagnetic, circuital and mechanical parts. These parts are often studied separately in the literature; however, a combined analysis is crucial to correctly describe the behaviour of the whole system. The proposed model is highly modular (to describe different Magnetic Brake System test-rig layouts characterized by a different number of magnetic polar expansions) and aims at obtaining a compromise between accuracy and numerical efficiency. Subsequently, a second simplified lumped parameter model derived from the complete one and built in MATLAB is developed, to further reduce the computational load without decreasing the results accuracy. In this work, both the models have been developed and validated in collaboration Ferrovie dello Stato and compared with other simplified models present in the literature.

Keywords:

• Magnetic Braking Systems
• railway braking
• railway vehicles

Acknowledgements

Authors wish to thank Italcertifer S.p.a. (FS group) for providing cooperation to this project and for providing the technical and experimental data needed for the model development and validation.

Disclosure statement 

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.