The aim of this article is to examine existing technologies for the use of electrical energy and to develop proposals for their improvement on maritime vessels. As a criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of alternative energy sources on ships, factors such as greenhouse gas emissions levels, production and transportation characteristics, onboard storage conditions, and technoeconomic indicators have been proposed. The analysis of fuel types reveals that hydrogen has zero greenhouse gas emissions. However, transportation and storage issues, along with the high investment required for implementation, pose barriers to the widespread use of hydrogen as fuel for maritime vessels. This article demonstrates that solar energy can serve as an alternative to gases and liquid fuels in maritime transport. The technologies and challenges in utilizing solar energy for shipping are analyzed, trends in solar energy for maritime transport are discussed, and future research directions for the use of solar energy in the maritime sector are proposed. The most significant findings include the identification of future research directions in the application of solar energy in the maritime sector, including the adaptation of concentrated solar power (CSP) systems for maritime applications; the development of materials and designs for solar panels specifically tailored to marine conditions; the development of methods for assessing the long-term economic benefits of using solar energy on vessels; and the creation of regulatory frameworks and international standards for the use of solar energy on ships. Furthermore, for hybrid photovoltaic and diesel power systems, promising research directions could include efforts to implement direct torque control systems instead of field-orientated control systems, as well as working on compensating higher harmonics in the phase current spectra of asynchronous motors.

The issue of movement stability remains highly relevant considering increasing vehicle speeds. The evaluation of vehicle stability parameters and the modeling of specific movement modes is a complex task, as no universal evaluation criteria have been established. The main task in modeling car stability is an integrated assessment of the vehicle’s road interactions and identification of relationships. The main system affecting the vehicle’s road interaction is the suspension of the vehicle. Vehicle suspension is required to provide constant wheel to road surface contact, thus creating the preconditions for stability of vehicle movement. At the same time, it must provide the maximum possible body insulation against the effect of unevennesses on the road surface. Combining the two marginal prerequisites is challenging, and the issue has not been definitively solved to this day. Inaccurate alignment of the suspension and damping characteristics of the vehicle suspension impairs the stability of the vehicle, and passengers feel discomfort due to increased vibrations of the vehicle body. As a result, the driving speed is artificially restricted, the durability of the vehicle body is reduced, and the transported cargo is affected. In the study, analytical computational and experimental research methods were used. Specialized vehicle-road interaction assessment programs were developed for theoretical investigation. The methodology developed for assessing vehicle movement stability may be used for the following purposes: design and improvement of vehicle suspension and other mechanisms that determine vehicle stability; analysis of road spans assigned with characteristic vehicle movement settings; road accident situation analysis; design of road structures and establishment of certain operational restrictions on the road structures. A vehicle suspension test bench that included original structure mechanisms that simulate the effect of the road surface was designed and manufactured to test the results of theoretical calculations describing the work of the vehicle suspension and to study various suspension parameters. Experimental investigations were carried out by examining the vibrations of vehicle suspension elements caused by unevenness on the road surface.

The dynamic process of the railway track–rolling stock interaction is characterized by time-dependent dynamics that are determined by both the varying characteristics of the interaction objects and the varying climatic conditions. This study investigated the effect of different groups of influence on the dynamic process, with a view towards the reduction of the cases of randomness during the registration of the process in experiments and an expansion of the understanding of the processes happening during the assessment of the registered data. The static nature of the rolling stock has been demonstrated to be not uniform and to influence the scattering of dynamic values under the variation of vertical and horizontal forces due to the characteristics of a rolling stock. The position of the rolling stock truck relative to the track axis during the movement of the rolling stock has been shown to enhance static non-uniformity. The results of the longitudinal force measurements under the three-point and Schlumpf methods have suggested that it is necessary to investigate the process of rail warping under the action of the rolling stock wheels. To enhance the output of the experiments, it is proposed to consider not only the stiffness of the basis of the oscillatory processes that imitate the physical process of oscillation of the system elements by means of the oscillation amplitude, but also the time of response to the oscillation process by using and assessing the triggering time rather than the frequencies of the oscillation processes.

An analysis of the operating conditions of the traction drives of an electric rolling stock with asynchronous traction motors was conducted. In the process of operation, the electric traction drive with both direct torque control and vector control was found to possibly experience unstable modes, both in terms of power supply and load. The models of electric locomotive traction drives with asynchronous electric motors with either vector or direct torque control were adapted to account for the possible presence of the aforementioned operational factors. As a result of the modeling, the starting characteristics of the electric traction drives with different control systems were obtained both in the absence and in the presence of power supply and load disturbances. The following cases were investigated for the drive with vector and direct torque control in the absence of power supply and torque disturbances: drive output at the rated speed of rotation of the electric motor shaft; 10% reduction in the rated speed; 10% increase in the rated speed. The comparison of the results obtained has demonstrated that, at lower than nominal frequencies, the electric traction drive with direct torque control has higher accuracy in its regulation of the rotational speed and torque, lower power consumption from the power supply, lower torque overshooting, but a higher level of torque pulsations than the electric traction drive with vector control. Meanwhile, at higher than nominal frequencies, the vector control has higher accuracy in its regulation of the speed, lower torque overshooting, shorter duration of transient processes, and lower torque pulsations than the direct torque control. Moreover, as a result of the investigations, the traction drive with direct torque control has been found to be more resistant to power supply and load disturbances. The results of this work are applicable to the investigation of the influence of electric traction drive control methods on the energy efficiency of the traction drive of an electric locomotive with an alternating current (AC).

Operation modes of rolling stock at mining enterprises are considered and analyzed. The justification of the need to replace it with a modern specialized electric locomotive for quarry railway transport, equipped with an asynchronous traction electric drive and an on-board energy storage system, is presented. The determination of the parameters and structure of the on-board energy storage system, based on the condition of power compensation with limited power consumption from the traction network and ensuring the autonomous movement of the electric locomotive, is considered. This study was carried out by modeling the processes of energy exchange in the traction system of an electric locomotive. The use of lithium cells and supercapacitors in energy storage is considered. Variants of the hybridization of energy storage were studied from the standpoint of minimizing the weight, size, and cost indicators. It was established that reducing the mass of the energy storage device, which includes lithium cells and supercapacitors, leads to an increase in the cost of one kilowatt-hour of energy storage capacity, which reduces the attractiveness of capital expenditures for the creation of such an energy storage device. Hybridization of the energy storage device by combining lithium cells of different types practically does not improve its weight, size, and cost indicators. The recommended option is a storage capacity of energy based on LTO elements, for which it is necessary to select elements in order to minimize weight, size, and cost indicators.

This paper deals with the analysis of the operating conditions of traction drives of the electric locomotives with asynchronous traction motors. The process of change of the catenary system voltage was found to have a stochastic character. The method of current controller synthesis based on the Wiener–Hopf equation was proposed to enable efficient performance of the traction drive control system under the condition of the stochastic nature of the catenary system voltage and the presence of interferences, when measuring the stator current values of the tractor motor. Performance simulation of the proposed current controller and the current controller used in the existing vector control systems of the traction drives used in the electric locomotives was implemented. The results of the performance simulation of the proposed current controller were compared with the performance of the current controller in existing vector control systems of the traction drives. The results are applicable to the design of vector control systems of traction drives in electric locomotives and to the study of the influence of performance of electric traction drives in electric locomotives on the quality indicators of the power supplied by the traction power supply system under the actual operating conditions of the locomotive.