Eddy CUrrent Brake Compatibility (ECUC) is a jointly funded European research project co-funded by the European Commission under FP7. ECUC aims to prove that linear eddy-current brake (ECB) is a very effective and applicable solution for increasing the braking capacity of new high speed trains and solving the concerns raised by infrastructure managers by proposing concrete and realistic solutions to overcome the drawbacks that ECB have experienced on some lines.
The ECUC breakthroughs will be:
- the development of a holistic model which integrates the interaction between linear eddy-current brake and signalling systems and infrastructure
- the identification of the representative worst case conditions not only for linear eddy-current brake, but also for the rolling stock, signalling systems and tracks
- proposal of technical recommendation with new requirements for linear eddy-current brake and the infrastructure and a testing procedure for trains equipped with linear eddy-current brake