Advanced modelling and performance evaluation of hydrogen-powered heavy haul locomotive

In recent years, there have been significant activities in the development of hybrid, battery electric and alternative fuel (e.g., LPG, LNG, CNG) locomotives. However, to date there is a limited number of publications on the usage of such modelling and simulation approaches for hydrogen-powered rail vehicles, and almost no publications on hydrogen-powered heavy haul locomotives. A conceptual heavy haul hydrogen-powered locomotive has been designed and studied with the application of advanced simulation techniques used in recent locomotive/train/track damage studies. The detailed locomotive model includes multibody subsystems for the mechanical system of the locomotive and a traction power system implemented in the Matlab/Simulink software package. The traction performance evaluation has been performed through the delivery of traction effort characteristics of the proposed locomotive through co-simulation between multibody software and Matlab/Simulink and the evaluation of locomotive traction performance in a train configuration where the developed hydrogen-powered locomotive has been placed in a head-end locomotive consist for hauling a heavy haul train. The paper presents a summary of the simulation results, and detailed discussion of the limitations that have been identified in the approach.