The influence of the exploitation conditions of the rolling stock on the effectiveness of recuperation

Abstract

Recuperation is one of the most perspective energy saving methods in railway transport - conversion of train kinetic energy into electric energy and its release to the other user. Recuperation could be very useful for freight transportation. Full and several times heavier than empty train units are transported to sea ports (i.e. going down), the empty ones several times lighter than full ones are transported from the sea ports (i.e. going up). Such asymmetry of freight transportation volumes (when the direction is "down" the freight volumes are higher than the direction is "up") could be effectively applied for the recuperation of the energy. When there is a respective combination of railway incline and freight asymmetry, it is possible to use freight potential energy with the help of recuperation and in thereby freight transportation could be possible without external energy source, however, there is a minimum limit of incline which could not be exceeded (to smaller part) because then the recuperation is not possible.