A STUDY ON RELEASING MANOEUVRE TO IMPROVE FREIGHT SAFETY AND EFFICIENCY

The paper investigates the in-train tensile forces that occur during a braking manoeuvre followed by brake release and train acceleration. More in detail, it analyses the effect of traction unit characteristics, in terms of power application gradient and time of power application, on highest in-train tensile forces, for different braking and releasing regimes. By taking into consideration both uniformly and notuniformly loaded trains, it is shown that it is possible to significantly increase freight efficiency, also avoiding train disruption risk, by smoothly applying power to traction unit just after the initiation of brake releasing operation.