Ning Zhao

• PhD
• Assistant Professor in Railway System Engineering at University of Birmingham

Fault detection and diagnosis in dynamic systems are crucial for ensuring reliable performance, especially in complex industrial processes, intelligent vehicles, and large-scale systems. This paper presents an adaptive observer-based fault detection and diagnosis method for a class of multiple-input multiple-output linear dynamic systems subject to...

Though being attractive on railway decarbonisation for regional lines, excessive cost caused by immature hydrogen supply chain is one of the significant hurdles for promoting hydrogen traction to rolling stocks. Therefore, we conduct bespoke research on the UK's hydrogen supply chain for railway, concentrating on hydrogen transportation. Firstly, a...

All diesel-only trains in the UK will be removed from services by 2040. High volumetric density, rapid refuelling ability, and sophisticated experience in infrastructure and logistics make ammonia a perfect hydrogen carrying fuel for rail freight, which urgently requires an economically viable solution. This study conducted a novel techno-economic...

Autotransformer (AT) traction network with bilateral power supply mode is an effective and economical electrified railway feeding scheme. However, due to the nonlinear relationship between measured reactance and distance, as well as the complex power flow distribution, the accuracy of fault location is facing severe challenges. This paper proposes...

This paper presents a fuzzy adaptive protective control method for autonomous high-speed trains (HSTs) automatic operation using a new outstretched error feedback design approach. In order to stabilizing the error dynamics with respect to target position and speed profiles of controlled HSTs, nonlinear transformation in prescribed performance contr...

This paper presents linkage-constraint criteria to guarantee the robustness of global exponential stability (RoGES) for a class of generalized nonlinear bidirectional associative memory (BAM) systems in the presence of derivative contraction coefficients and piecewise constant arguments (NBAM-dp system). However, because of the appearance of the tr...

Rapid transit systems play a significant role in supporting rapid social and economic development in large cities all over the world. However, the systems consume a large amount of energy, which brings increasing environmental concerns. A number of energy-saving technologies have been studied on railways. However, few of the outcomes have been test...

We look into minimizing the hydrogen fuel consumption of hydrogen hybrid trains by optimizing their operation. The powertrain considered is a fuel cell charge-sustaining hybrid. Convex optimization is utilized to compute optimal speed and energy management trajectories. The barrier method is used to solve the optimization problems quickly on the or...

The simulation of railway systems plays a key role in designing the traction power supply network, managing the train operation, and making changes to timetables. Various simulation technologies have been developed to study the railway traction power network and train operation independently. However, the interactions between the load performance,...

The reduction of train energy consumption is becoming more important due to increasing worldwide environmental concerns. This paper presents a driving strategy optimization study and field test results on an urban rail transit system. A genetic algorithm based optimization method has been developed specifically for this purpose. In order to identif...

This paper presents the development of SmartDrive package to achieve the application of energy-efficient driving strategy. The results are from collaboration between Ricardo Rail and the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE). Advanced tram and train trajectory optimization techniques developed by BCRRE as part of the UKTRAM M...

Train-centric communications-based train control (TcCBTC) system is a new solution for urban transit signalling. Compared to traditional train control systems, the on-board equipment is becoming more powerful and more complex. Due to its safety-critical nature, specialised technologies must be adopted to guarantee the safety of the system. To addre...

Driver Advisory Systems (DAS) aim to provide reliable and efficient driving instructions to the driver with optimized trajectory. This paper studies trajectory optimization method to achieve energy efficiency and punctuality for DAS. Firstly, the design of offline trajectory optimization is studied, using the Genetic Algorithm (GA) to optimize the...

The rail industry is being driven to reduce energy consumption and ensure value for money in order to remain competitive with emerging road transport technologies. Furthermore, rail networks are faced with the challenge of increasing capacity to meet a growing demand. The primary means of increasing capacity is to upgrade the signalling system. Thi...

Train trajectory optimisation plays a key role in improving energy saving performance and it is currently receiving increasing attention in railway research because of rising energy prices and environmental concerns. There have been many studies looking for optimal train trajectories with various different approaches. However, very few of the resul...

Energy and environmental sustainability in transportation are becoming ever more important. In Europe, the transportation sector is responsible for about 30% of the final end use of energy. Electrified railway systems play an important role in contributing to the reduction of energy usage and CO2 emissions compared with other transport modes. For m...

Energy efficient techniques are receiving increasing attention because of rising energy prices and environmental concerns. Railways, along with other transport modes, are facing increasing pressure to provide more intelligent and efficient power management strategies. This paper presents an integrated optimization method for metro operation to mini...

The harmonic currents injected by high speed electric trains cause not only the pollution of power quality (PQ), but can also excite harmonic resonance in the traction power supply system (TPSS) of high speed railway (HSR). It is essential to build a proper harmonic distribution and prediction model for high speed electric trains. This paper presen...

One approach to reduce energy consumption in railway systems is to implement optimised train trajectories. These are speed profiles that reduce energy consumption without foregoing customer comfort or running times. This is achieved by avoiding unnecessary braking and running at reduced speed whilst maintaining planned arrival times. An optimised t...

With rising concerns on energy and environment, the energy-efficient operation techniques in railway systems are paid more attention in recent years. The metro-transit system has some distinguishing features like short headway and a high number of stations with short interstation distance, which makes effectively using regenerative energy becoming...

Tram systems uses a considerable amount energy in day-to-day operations, with the whole life cost of energy used to operate the tram potentially costing as much as the tram itself. This energy is used to provide traction and auxiliary power. Tram system designers and those involved with early stage concept evaluation rarely have access to tolls and...

An advanced combined co-phase traction power supply system is proposed by combining a single-phase traction transformer and an active power flow controller (PFC) in an electrified railway. In the new system, the power quality problems caused by single-phase traction load are solved in the grid side and continuous power can be provided to electric t...

To become more competitive, railways are developing methods and technologies that enable cost reduction, higher capacity, better punctuality and greater sustainability. The authors of this study address the last two objectives and propose a method that can be used to minimize the impact of a single delay on the system by reducing both the deviation...

Regenerating trains are now in common use on many DC fed railway systems, and train operating companies are able to get a discount on their energy costs if regeneration is active. The electrical energy consumption in a DC system is significant, and a comprehensive understanding of how regeneration affects the overall system energy consumption has n...

In railway operations, if the journey of a preceding train is disturbed, the service interval between it and the following trains may fall below the minimum line headway distance. If this occurs, train interactions will happen, which will result in extra energy usage, knock-on delays, and penalties for the operators. This paper describes a train tr...

With rising energy prices and environmental concerns, train energy-efficient operation techniques are paid more and more attention in recent years. Transportation is facing increasing pressure to optimise power management strategies. The driving style, which is conventionally controlled by drivers or by modern Automatic Train Operation (ATO) contro...

This paper describes an Enhanced Brute Force Algorithm application to optimise train trajectory (driving speed curve) for Automatic Train Operation (ATO) systems. A multi-train simulator was developed specifically for the study. It can be used to simulate the movement of railway vehicles and calculate the detailed power system energy consumption wi...

Regenerative braking improves the energy efficiency of railway transportation by converting the kinetic energy into the electrical energy. In this paper, Linear Programming (LP) is applied to search for the train braking trajectory with the maximum Regenerative Braking Energy (RBE). LP takes the advantages of simplicity in modelling, efficiency in...

The modeling and simulation of the electrified transit system is an essential element in the design process of a new railway, or an existing one being modernized, particularly in DC powered railway systems which have significant losses in the power network. With the continuing focus on environmental concerns and rising energy prices, energy-saving...

As the energy prices and environmental concerns increasing, improving railway operation efficiency, which is an effective method to reduce energy consumption and operation expense, attracts people attention. In metro systems, the two traditional approaches to minimise energy consumption are optimising the timetable and driving strategy, respectivel...

Communications-based train control (CBTC) is an emerging technology for urban rail transit systems. An integrated method for assessing the capacity of CBTC-system-installed urban rail lines is proposed in this paper. Based on the UIC Code 406 method, the new integrated method includes train movement simulation, timetable construction, test and opti...

Signalling systems are critical in ensuring the safe movement of trains within a network. The choice of signalling system employed on a particular line has a direct impact on the journey time and hence the capacity of the line. Computer simulations provide a viable method for evaluating and analysing the performance of signalling systems. This pape...

Railway timetables provide a fixed set of timings for trains to arrive at a key point on the railway network. However, trains are usually operated by humans and services are commonly disturbed by external influences, such as increased dwell times at stations, or infrastructure equipment failures. Such disturbances are significant on high capacity r...

This paper demonstrates an enhanced Brute Force algorithm application for optimising the driving speed curve by trading off reductions in energy usage against increases in delay penalty. A simulator is used to compare the train operation performance with different train control system configurations when implemented on a section of high-speed line...