Applying Collaborative Co-Simulation to Railway Traction Energy Consumption

Simulation is a vital tool for understanding rail traction energy consumption. Simulating such energy consumption requires an understanding of the interactions between timetable, infrastructure, and driver behavior to be encapsulated within a multi-train system model. This is critical to simulating systemic interactions that affect energy consumption on a rail network. However, building and executing such a system simulation is challenging because of diverse models, stakeholders, and knowledge, as well as a lack of tools to support flexible and scalable simulation. This paper presents a demonstration of co-simulation—an approach originating in the automotive industry and now being used in other sectors—that enables a system model to be assessed for different configurations of timetable, rolling stock, infrastructure, and driver behavior. This paper describes the co-simulation approach before outlining the development process that allowed three research institutes, each with diverse models, to collaborate and deliver an integrated, holistic modeling approach. The results of this work are presented and discussed, both in terms of the quantified outputs and findings for energy consumption, and the lessons learned through collaborative co-simulation. Future avenues to build on this work are identified.