Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTSAs part of the European Union's Green Deal, the transport sector, including rail transport, is to be completely decarbonized by 2050 at the latest. In view of the long service life of rail vehicles, this means enormous potential for innovation and growth.
This research project is a project to reduce the total cost of ownership of passenger and freight rail vehicles. The reduced life cycle costs are to be achieved (i) at component level through new lightweight radiator technologies, (ii) at system level through more energy-efficient thermal management and (iii) over the service life with condition monitoring approaches. The investment costs are to be reduced, for example, by means of innovative cooling technologies such as automotive-related fin-and-tube cooling systems, while operating costs are to be reduced, for example, by means of part-load-optimized cooling plates for power converter circuits. With regard to maintenance costs, attempts will be made to identify environmental influences that damage the material, to quantify their influence on the component via condition monitoring and to define suitable avoidance measures. The overall aim of the project is to reduce the total cost of ownership of cooling systems for rail vehicles by 20 percent.
Funding body: TÜV Rheinland Consulting GmbH as project management in the Ground-based Transport Technologies program for the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection
Funding reference: 19I22008B
Project period: 01.01.2023 to 31.12.2025
Project partner:
- MAHLE Industrial Thermal Systems GmbH & Co. KG