Distribution of the Target Running Time to Achieve Energy Savings, including Interstations with a Non-uniform Energy Characteristic Gradient

抄録

Technologies for the optimization of train timetables have been investigated to reduce energy consumption. Previous studies have shown that the total energy consumption of all interstations is minimized when the target running time is selected at points that result in an identical gradient of the energy consumption against the running time. However, in certain cases, the running time cannot be selected at these points. In such cases, the conventional method cannot be used owing to the eccentric line profile, such as a steeper grade or longer distance intersection. In this study, we propose a method for setting the target running time at the lower limit of the interstation with small ∂E/∂T (small reduction of energy consumption per increase in target running time), and set the remaining target running times to other interstations to ensure that the gradient of all other interstations is identical. By verifying the proposed method through simulations, we confirmed that the proposed method can minimize the energy consumption by calculating all expected values of the gradient for the interstations. Therefore, our results shed light on dealing with line profiles for which a running time cannot be selected at the point that results in an identical gradient of energy consumption against the running time.