Study of Supercapacitors Built in the Start-Up System of the Main Diesel Locomotive

Abstract

A successful guaranteed launch of a mainline diesel locomotive is one of the most important and urgent problems of the rolling stock operation. Improvement of the start-up system of the main diesel locomotive when using a supercapacitor allows multiple restarts of diesel locomotives, meaning that the operation of the diesel locomotive can be stopped several times without wasting fuel in idle operations. In this study, we simulated the electric starting circuit of a diesel locomotive with a block of supercapacitors using the Matlab Simulink program. The simulation results show that using only a supercapacitor in the start-up system is impossible. Even though the supercapacitor produces the required current and voltage, its operating time is extremely insufficient. Using a storage battery along with a supercapacitor in the diesel locomotive start-up system is most effective. This reduces the peak current load on the standard battery. The article suggests an effective principle for starting a mainline diesel locomotive and provides an effective circuit solution involving a supercapacitor. Based on the booster stabilizer scheme, a new scheme was modeled to study the successful launch of a diesel locomotive that has various start-up systems. Applying a supercapacitor in the start-up system of a main diesel locomotive is proposed and the results of its use are presented. In addition, this study defines the basic requirements for using a system based on a battery in conjunction with a supercapacitor. Characteristics such as the temperature range of the system are shown.