OpenDSS is a wonderful package, but it is not suitable for simulating some special features of railway traction network, it would be fantastic to have something similar related to Railway power systems. What do you think?
OpenDSS is a very interesting tool for simulating power distribution systems including DGs. Its main drawback is that the source codes are inaccessible, especially for researchers over the worlds, while there are some other toolboxes in power system simulation such as Matpower and PSAT that are based on MATLAB. One can see all the coding details of Matpower and PSAT. This simple difference creates a meaning full difference in the citation that these tools gained.
For example, if you search in google scholar, you will find that OpenDSS related references are cited less than 200 times. While, Matpower main paper has been cited more than 1800 times.
OpenDSS in a magnificent tool and has an interface to be connected to MATLAB. However, it hasn't gained the popularity of the MATLAB based packages.
So, It would be better to develop new tools based on Matlab software.
Dear Hamzeh, I agree with you, PSAT or MATPOWER are beautiful and powerful tools too, but I was thinking about some tool able to deal with non-smooth devices such a converters or trains with complicated characteristics very specific of railway power systems.
Pablo - maybe the fsolve and other included solvers in Matlab has matured since "we were young"?
It is actually a relevant research topic to investigate if Matlab in itself is more capable of railway applications now compared to what it used to be.
Dear Lars, you are right Matlab - fsolve has improved a lot, but there is still too much work to do, our C++ based solvers are much faster than fsolve. For a general purposes solver with educational approach fsolve is perfect, but when you really want to make something real fast.... you need to go to C++