The Energy Performance Efficiency of Locomotives

A need to determine the performance efficiency of diesel locomotives arises when it is necessary to assess the quality of work done by operating organizations and make a comparative assessment of the adoption of new locomotives, new structural parts of their power plants, or new control algorithms. The first of these tasks is accomplished using the data obtained during the operation of locomotives, the scope of tkm work performed, the aggregate diesel fuel consumption, the quality of following the train schedule, and other indicators. To comparatively assess the efficiency of using locomotives of different series or adopting structural modifications, it is necessary to derive corresponding criteria of assessment and mathematical tools that will allow taking into account the peculiarities of power plants installed on locomotives. This article considers existing approaches to assessing locomotives on the basis of energy efficiency and proposes a new integrated vehicle energy efficiency index, a technique for calculating this index, a technique for representing train operations in a limited set of single train running modes, and a procedure for designing these modes considering stationary and unsteady operational modes of the power plant and equipment assemblies.