Modeling and Control of Heavy Haul Trains

Heavy haul trains up to several kilometers long, as illustrated in Fig. 1, are widely used to transport minerals in South Africa. The cost of train scheduling and human resources can be reduced when long and heavy haul trains are used instead of short trains. Energy consumption, running time, and in-train forces are the main concerns relating to the control of long heavy haul trains [1]. Braking control is a fundamental issue in heavy haul train operations when in-train forces and safe operation are considered. As an improvement of the older pneumatic braking systems, electrically controlled pneumatic braking systems developed in the 1990s provide various benefits, for instance, instantaneous response to the engineer’s commands on all vehicles, graduated release of brakes, and continual replenishment of braking air reservoirs [2]. To improve the operational performance of heavy haul trains, energy-saving entails speed-switching or distance-switching algorithms, where the operation of a train consists of periods of powering, coasting, and stopping [3], [4]. The algorithms are based on a mass-point model, and the braking actions are assumed to be sparsely applied within the cruising period. In [5], an LQR optimal algorithm is adopted to minimize the coupler forces and velocit