A Comprehensive DC Railway Traction System Simulator Based on MATLAB: Tabriz Line 2 Metro Project Case Study

As a result of rapid global urbanization, energy and environmental sustainability are becoming increasingly significant. According to the Rail Transport and Environment Report published by the International unio‎n of Railways in 2015, energy used in the transportation sector accounts for approximately 32% of final energy consumption in the EU. Railway, representing over 8.5% of the total traffic in volume, shares less than 2% of the transport energy consumption. Railway plays an important role in reducing energy usage and CO2 emissions, compared with other transport modes such as road transport. However, despite the inherent efficiency, the energy used by the rail industry is still high, making the study of railway energy efficiency of global importance. Therefore, in this paper, the development of the comprehensive simulator software for DC-fed railway systems is demonstrated. In the proposed MATLAB based software, the train movement model and railway power network model are integrated into the simulator. This energy simulator can calculate the energy flow of the whole system according to multiple-train driving controls and timetables. Finally, the results of simulations for a standard Railway system are compared to valid references