A method for optimization of time intervals between rolling cuts on sorting humps

Abstract

Sorting humps are the main technical means providing the breaking- and making-up of freight trains. Automation of sorting process by implementing microprocessor control systems is the main direction of increasing hump yard capacity, enhancement of safety in trains breaking-up, improvement of working conditions on hump yards. However, for wider introduction of such systems at the humps, it is necessary to reduce their cost. One of the main tasks of hump control systems is the determination of the optimal cars exit speeds from the retarders. Its solution is significantly complicated because of the uncertainty of cars rolling resistance coefficient, wind velocity and direction, retarder control errors. The paper is aimed at solving the problem of searching for such cars exit speeds from the retarders that provide the longest time intervals between them at the switches. Implementation of this method will make it possible to improve the quality of sorting process as a whole by improving the software of microprocessor control systems for automatic humping, rather than by increasing their technical facilities, which as a result will reduce the cost of their construction and operation. The research results, when solving the problem of searching for cars exit speeds from the retarders, allow us to move from searching for the maximum of a nonlinear non-smooth function of two variables to solution of an equation with one variable, which significantly accelerates and simplifies the solution to the problem.