Background

Recent studies estimate a contribute of the railway traffic in Europe within 2015 of the 10% for  the passengers and of the 15% for the vehicles, in comparison with the total of persons and means mobility. This trend is also manifest on the Italian national territory, where the railway traffic users increase is uninterrupted and is becoming more and more competitive with respect to airbus (for medium distances) and automotive (for short distances). On the other hand, the regional and national energetic political strategies impose a continuous effort in the eco-sustainability and energy saving direction both for the vehicles and for the infrastructure management.

Objective

In this scenario, the project SFERE has the aim to develop technologies and innovative management and control strategies which will be directed to improve the energy efficiency of the rail transport vectors on the urban and regional scale and of the power supply systems of the railway substations. The transport vectors based on traditional power supply components have already a very good energy efficiency; on the other hand, further margins (eventually remarkable) to improve efficiency can  still  be  found  utilizing  innovative  components  and  developing  control  and  management strategies at the “system” level. As regards the transport vector study, the project activities will be focused on the development of an innovative propulsion system consisting of the following elements:

•permanent magnets motors with high electric and mechanical efficiency and with high power density;

•optimized components and modulation techniques for power converters supplying permanent magnets motors;

•electronic transformer at medium frequency optimized for rail traction systems;

•on board super-capacitors to be integrated with the power line for the management of energy fluxes;

•high  performances  control  system,  based  on  modern  hardware  platforms  and  software algorithms for the implementation of advanced controllers;

•simplified and lighter innovative bogie able to lodge the motor group.

At the system level, as regards the substation and its interaction with the transport vector, in the project will be studied and developed the following topics:

•control systems algorithms and methodologies aimed at the optimization of energy fluxes, both on board and on the infrastructure;

•electric energy storage system with super-capacitors for urban and metropolitan transport;

•methodology oriented towards the system energy analysis for a better management of the vehicle and of the fleet.

The research results will be also verified experimentally by developing several demonstrators: the “real-time hardware in the loop” system for the control platforms and algorithms, the permanent magnets motor with its power converter for the local transportation vector, the on board and on substation super-capacitors, the medium frequency electronic transformer.

Partners

AnsaldoBreda&STS, TRS, DIETI-UniNa, DiMe UniSa, UniBen, Metrocampania, Atenix.