Keywords: cyber-physical, object-oriented, model, railroad, simulation, language, energy storage.

Modelling the electro-mechanical interaction of railway lines is very important nowadays, because a global energy optimisation can only be attained by considering these systems as a whole, for example, by exploiting the regenerative braking energy, converting this energy into electricity, and sending it on to another point of the system where other trains or an energy storage station can absorb it. This feature is effectively exploited in urban environment lines, in particular, such as underground and tram lines where regenerative braking often occurs.

Today, a general purpose modelling language, the Modelica language, has been developed, which started in the late nineties, and is used more and more for "multiengineering" systems, i.e. systems that mix different kinds of subsystems such as electro-mechanical, electro-hydraulic, thermal-mechanical, etc.

This paper explains the basic opportunities and issues of using Modelica language and tools in simulating electromechanical railroad systems, i.e. systems containing electrical feeding substations, contact lines, trains, and, possibly storage stations. It shows that the Modelica language has achieved a significant level of flexibility and reliability, and is thus very good for creating the models that have been developed, and give results very fast in comparison to older tools. The validity of the proposed techniques and the main physical effects simulated are shown in simple sample cases.

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