Lithium battery packs replace high-voltage electric new energy and the prospects for air-rail are promising

Recently, in Shuangliu Southwest Airport Economic Development Zone, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, a train suspended in the air attracted people's attention - this is the world's first new energy air-rail test line. Because the train's exterior design uses a black and white panda pattern, it is vividly called the "Panda" air-rail.

"The new energy sky rail is a new form of urban rail transit. It is a light, medium-speed, medium-capacity public transportation tool that is not affected by ground traffic conditions. It is safe, green, environmentally friendly, fully automated, operates around the clock, has low construction cost, and is cost-effective," said Zhai Wanming, chief designer of the new energy sky rail project and chief professor of Southwest Jiaotong University, in an interview with reporters.

With completely independent intellectual property rights

The expanding number of cars and limited urban road resources have made urban transportation increasingly overwhelmed. How can we leverage my country's advantages in rail transit design, research and development, and construction to improve the efficiency of urban comprehensive transportation operations?

Establishing a more efficient three-dimensional transportation system is a feasible solution. Experts said that if my country's existing underground and ground transportation methods such as subways, light rails, and cars are supported by pillars in the air and trains are allowed to run in a suspended manner, an aerial train channel can be opened.

To promote the research and development of the air-rail project, Sichuan Zhongtang Air-Rail Group initiated and invested, led by the State Key Laboratory of Traction Power of Southwest Jiaotong University, and jointly established a new energy air-rail production, learning and research integrated collaborative project platform with 7 companies including CRRC Corporation Limited, China Railway Construction Corporation Limited, and Panzhihua Iron and Steel Company. Now, the world's first new energy air-rail test line has been put into operation in Chengdu.

It is reported that the design speed of this air-rail test line is 60 kilometers per hour, and the single carriage is 18 meters long, 2.3 meters wide, and has a capacity of 120 people. "The total length of the test line is 1,461 meters. The entire system consists of passenger stations, mainline track box girders (including bridge piers), right-line track box girders (including bridge piers), curved sections (minimum turning radius 30 meters), uphill and downhill sections (maximum slope 60‰), passenger car carriages, static adjustment warehouses (charging devices), high-power lithium battery power packs and other units." Ji Minting, chief engineer of China Railway Baoqiao Group Co., Ltd., who participated in the track construction, introduced.

"This marks that my country has become the third country after Germany and Japan to master the suspended monorail transportation technology," said Zhai Wanming. At the same time, since this test line is the first in the world to use lithium battery packs instead of high voltage electricity for suspended train traction, my country has completely independent intellectual property rights for related technologies, which is a major innovation in my country's rail transportation field.

Operational safety is fully guaranteed

From a distance, the new energy sky-rail train appears to be running above pedestrians' heads. Is the safety and stability of this new technology reliable?

In this regard, Zhai Wanming introduced that the train is always enclosed inside the box-shaped track beam when running, so there will be no derailment accidents. The train will not collide with other objects when running on the aerial dedicated line, and the operational safety is fully guaranteed. After nearly two months of debugging and operation since the aerial rail train was put on the line at the end of September this year, all technical indicators have met the design requirements.

"Standing inside the carriage, the view is extremely broad, but the bumpy feeling inside the carriage is still quite obvious." said a passenger who has experienced the new energy skytrain.

It is understood that the expert team will continue to conduct all-round tests on the entire air-rail operation system including the track system, body system, traction system, signal system, etc. on this test line to strictly test its technical reliability. According to experts, the biggest risk at present is that the air-rail runs out of power during operation. In order to help passengers escape and evacuate, the car can open the front and back windows in an emergency, and passengers can evacuate through slides or simple ladders, or another air-rail can come to pick up the trapped passengers to ensure the safe evacuation of passengers.

What are the advantages of new energy skytrain

At present, new energy sky trains are still in the stage of technical testing and optimization on the test line. If they are used on a large scale in commercial applications in the future, what advantages will new energy sky trains have?

In this regard, experts analyzed that compared with subways, urban light rail and maglev trains, the biggest advantage of new energy sky rail is its wide adaptability. Its minimum turning radius is only 30 meters, which has greater flexibility in urban rail transit line selection and can minimize the amount of demolition.

In terms of cost and efficiency, compared with the large investment required to build a subway, the tracks and beams of the new energy skytrain are prefabricated in the factory and assembled on site, which makes construction simple, has little impact on the surrounding area, and has a shorter construction period. Moreover, since the train is battery-driven, it can store electricity when electricity consumption is low at night, which is green and environmentally friendly.

However, compared with subways, new energy air rail still lags behind in terms of transportation volume. "Air rail is one of many modes of transportation and an important supplement to urban rail transit." Zhai Wanming said that as a new type of modern transportation, new energy air rail will have a broad market in the future in the fields of three-dimensional transportation connection between urban and rural areas and between cities, integrated connection of central city transportation hubs, and transportation in hot tourist attractions.