Methodology for Analyzing Standalone Hybrid Railway Propulsion Systems: A Model Based System Engineering Approach

In this paper Hybrid Trains with more than one on board energy storage system are investigated. In details, a Hybrid Train which utilize a Fuel Cell system and a battery pack as stand-alone energy storage is analyzed. The CN4 Project, carried within the MOST - Sustainable Mobility National Research Center and financed by the PNRR funds, is about the decarbonization of the Italian Mobility sector. In particular, Spoke 2, which this work falls within, has as its main objective the study of the feasibility of alternative systems for railway propulsion on non-electrifiable lines. The main objective of the work, in line with the goals of the CN4 project, is to create both a numerical configurator and a digital twin of a Hybrid Train to study the feasibility of such systems in the Italian Railway scenario. The study aims at developing a methodology to aid the assessment of economic and environmental sustainability of the system in analysis and to investigate the effects of different Energy Management Systems (EMS). Due to the complexity of the involved control logic, a Hardware in the Loop (HIL) simulation will be carried out in order to test and verify the applicability of the proposed EMS on real systems.