ELECTRIC ENGINE

An electric engine is technically, it picks up electricity either by means of an overhead power supply or electric rails, has an on-board transformer which brings the power supply down to an acceptable level (like a sub-station on wheels). There is also a section that regulates the power supply to a level controlled by the driver. Then the power is provided to the traction motors on each axle of the engine's wheels, which is what provides the forward thrust. The electricity that is used for powering the train maybe created from any source. This electricity may be created with the help of a diesel engine, windmills or even hydroelectric power. The electricity is transmitted through overhead lines, battery or third rail. A model train engine works by taking up an electrical charge out of the metal track through metal engine's wheels that travel on the track. The electric power is transferred from the wheels on to the electric motor, which causes the electric motor to run. The train motor connects to the locomotive's wheels through a mechanized drive arrangement. As the electric current turns the locomotive's motor, the train's motor moves the gears which then spin the engine's wheels and thrust the locomotive down the train rails. Indian Railways has different type of engines, but here we will be going to see about the latest WAG 9 Electric Engine of Indian Railways.

An Electric Engine consist of the following main parts: On-Board Transformer Circuit Breaker Tap Changers Power Rectifiers Controlling Unit( Microcontroller ) Power Inverters Gate Drives AC Drives

Figure 1: Block Diagram Of Modern AC Electric Locomotive

POWER RECRIFIERS
The overhead line consist of a single phase supply at 25000V. The Pantograph receives the supply and sends it to circuit breaker. Then the supply reaches the transformer, where the voltage is step down to approximately 2200V depending upon the usage. The transformer consist of series of tap changers, of which two of them are shown. The output from the tap changer then goes to bridge rectifier circuit and then to capacitive filters in order to obtain an approximate of 2200V DC supply. The use of capacitive filter is to allow AC component and block DC component.

Figure 2: Rectifier Using Power Diodes And Capacitive Filter

Bridge Rectifier:- The Bridge Rectifier consists of 4 thyristors. It acts like a diode
in that it allows current to flow in only one direction but differs from the diode in that it will only permit the current to flow after it has been switched on or "gated". Once it has been gated and the current is flowing, the only way it can be turned off is to send current in the opposite direction. This cancels the original gating command. It's simple to achieve on an AC locomotive because the current switches its direction during each cycle. With this development, controllable rectifiers became possible and tap changers quickly became history. A thyristor controlled version of the 25 kV AC electric locomotive traction system looks like the diagram here on the left. A tapping is taken off the transformer for each DC motor and each has its own controlling thyristors and diodes. The AC from the transformer is rectified to DC by chopping the cycles, so to speak, so that they appear in the raw as half cycles of AC as shown on the left.

Figure 3: AC To DC

THYRISTOR CONTROLLED 3-PHASE SQUIRREL CAGE 3PHASE TRACTION MOTOR (6FRA6068)

A modern railway 3-phase traction motor is controlled by feeding in three AC currents which interact to cause the machine to turn. The three phases are most easily provided by an inverter which supplies the three variable voltage, variable frequency (VVVF) motor inputs. The variations of the voltage and frequency are controlled electronically. In the case of AC supply, the line voltage (say 25kV single phase) is fed into a transformer and a secondary winding is taken off for the rectifier which produces a DC output of say 1800 - 2200 volts depending on the application. This is then passed to the inverter which provides the controlled three phases to the traction motors. The connection between the rectifier and the inverter is called the DC link. This usually also supply an output for the train's auxiliary circuits. Modern electronics has given us the AC drive. It has only become available with modern electronics because the speed of a 3-phase AC motor is determined by the frequency of its supply but, at the same time, the power has to be varied. The frequency used to be difficult to control and that is why, until the advent of modern electronics, AC motors were almost exclusively used in constant speed applications and were therefore unsuitable for railway operation. A modern railway 3-phase traction motor is controlled by feeding in three AC currents which interact to cause the machine to turn. The three phases are most easily provided by an inverter which supplies the three variable voltage, variable frequency (VVVF) motor inputs.

Figure 4: Overview Of Engine

The variations of the voltage and frequency are controlled electronically. The AC motor can be used by either an AC or DC traction supply system. In the case of AC supply, the line voltage (say 25kV single phase) is fed into a transformer and a secondary winding is taken off for the rectifier which produces a DC output of say 1500 - 2000 volts depending on the application. This is then passed to the inverter which provides the controlled three phases to the traction motors. The connection between the rectifier and the inverter is called the DC link. This usually also supplies an output for the train's auxiliary circuits. All the thyristors are GTOs, including those in the rectifier, since they are now used to provide a more efficient output than is possible with the older thyristors. In addition, all the facilities of DC motor control are available, including dynamic braking, but are provided more efficiently and with less moving parts. Applied to a DC traction supply, the 3-phase set-up is even more simple, since it doesn't need a transformer or a rectifier. The DC line voltage is applied to the inverter, which provides the 3-phase motor control. Control of these systems is complex but it is all carried out by microprocessors. The control of the voltage pulses and the frequency has to be matched with the motor speed. The changes which occur during this process produce a set of characteristic buzzing noises which sound like the "gear changing" of a road vehicle and which can clearly be heard when riding on the motor car of an AC driven EMU. In this method, the speed of squirrel gauge induction motor control by varying the stator voltage, which is possible with the help of three sets of thyristor connected back to back with each phase of input supply as shown in figure below. The stator voltage can be reduced by delaying triggering gate pulses of the thyristor, if we delay these pulses the voltage may be reduced form rated input

voltage, which causes to decrease the speed of motor. On increasing the triggering pulses on the gate terminal the action will be vice versa to the previous case. In this method there are more loses are produced in the voltage and power due to the change in power factor, to recover theses loses in power a special thyristors are used called gate turn of thyristors (GTOs ), which force the current to flow almost in phase with voltage.

IGBT
Having got AC drive using GTO thyristors universally accepted as the modern traction system to have, power electronics engineers have produced a new development. This is the IGBT or Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor. The transistor was the forerunner of modern electronics, and it could be turned on or off like a thyristor but it doesn't need the high currents of the thyristor turn off. However it was, until very recently, only capable of handling very small currents measured in thousands of amps. Now, the modern device, in the form of the IGBT, can handle thousands of amps and it has appeared in traction applications. A lower current version was first used instead of thyristors in auxiliary supply inverters in the early 1990s but a higher rated version has now entered service in the most recent AC traction drives. Its principle benefit is that it can switch a lot faster (three to four times faster) than GTOs. This reduces the current required and therefore the heat generated, giving smaller and lighter units. The faster switching also reduces the complex "gearing" of GTOs and makes for a much smoother and more even sounding acceleration buzz from under the train. With IGBTs, "gear changing" has gone.

DC LINK
The term "DC link" is also used to describe the decoupling capacitor in the DC link. I assume that this is what you're asking about. The switching network on the output side generates very large transients at the switching frequency. The DC link capacitor helps to keep these transients from radiating back to the input. This can also help prevent the switching network from oscillating or triggering inadvertently at an inappropriate moment and causing a short. Additionally, if the input is not multiplephase, the capacitor helps provide a source of energy when the input waveform is near zero.

INVERTER
Inverters are used to convert the DC supply to three phase AC supply. Power electronics has provided IGBT based inverters which efficiently bring out the

conversion operation. By controlling the firing angle of the IGBT, the three phase ac supply is obtained which is fed to the AC traction motors.

Figure 5: IGBT Controlled Inverter