RAILWAY VEHICLE CONTROL APPARATUS AND RAILWAY SYSTEM HAVING REGENERATIVE CONTROL

Abstract: Substations (1, 2) supply rectified DC power containing an AC ripple to third rails (3A, 3B) of a railway system via ground fault disconnect switches (51, 52). A current trans­ former (7) connected in the power supply circuit of a railway vehicle (100) senses AC components, and its output is fed to a frequency detector (8) which determines if the substation ripple is present. If not, the detector actuates the motor con­ troller (11) of the vehicle to disable regenerative braking and thereby to prevent exacerbation of the fault.

Description: RAILWAY VEHICLE CONTROL APPARATUS AND RAILWAY SYSTEM HAVING REGENERATIVE CONTROL This invention relates to railway vehicle control apparatus. Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings shows an electric railway system including an overhead third rail 3 for supplying power to a vehicle 100. The third rail is divided into sections 3A and 3B at a change-over point 4, and DC power is supplied to these third rail sections from individual substations 1 and 2 through switches 51 and 52, respectively. As is well known in the art, the substations 1 and 2 are individually isolated from the respective third rail sections 3A and 3B by the switches 51 or 52 when troubles such as ground faults occur along said sections. The switches are independently actuated in response to such faults by conventional protective devices, not shown. Assume that the third rail section @@ is @@@@@@@@@ normally from the @@@@@@@@@@ 1 while the third rail section 3B is deenergized because the switch 52 has been opened due to a ground fault or the like. If the railway vehicle 100 is operating in a regenerative braking mode and enters the section 3B under such a condition, the regenerative power supplied by the vehicle will be fed into the section 3B and have the unwanted effect of increasing the mgnitude of the ground fault. This is a significant drawback of such conventional railway vehicle control apparatuses. An object of the present invention is thus to provide a railway vehicle control apparatus in which regenerative braking will cease when the vehicle is moving along a deenergized third rail section which has been disconnected from the power supply system due to a ground fault or the like having occurred. This object is accomplished according to one aspect of the invention by providing a railway vehicle control apparatus comprising a controller for controlling the main electric motors of the vehicle, means for sensing AC components in the current flowing through the power supply circuit of the vehicle, and detector means for determining whether said sensed components contain an AC ripple frequency generated by a substation. If no such ripple frequency is detected the controller is actuated to disable regenerative braking, thereby preventing exacerbation of the problem. According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided an electric railway system including track means, a railway vehicle movable on said track means, a plurality of spaced substations for individually supplying rectified DC power containing an AC ripple frequency component to associated third rail sections electrically insulated from each other, a plurality of switch means for individually disconnecting the substations from their associated third rail sections in response to ground faults or the like, propulsive motor-generator means within the vehicle, collector means in wiping contact with a said third rail section for coupling electrical power to and from a power supply line of the vehicle, and a controller in the vehicle for controlling the motor-generator means in either a drive mode or a regenerative braking mode, characterised by: a) means operatively associated with the vehicle power supply line for sensing the presence of AC signals; and b) means responsive to the sensing means for detecting whether or not sensed AC signals include an AC ripple frequency component from a substation and for actuating the controller to disable regenerative braking in the absence of such an AC ripple frequency component. sor a better unaerstanaing of the invention, and to show how the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure R is a schematic diagram of a conventional elec tric railway system; Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a railway vehicle control apparatus in accordance with the pres ent inventon; anss Figure 3 is an equivalent circuit diagram of the schema tic view shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 shows one embodiment of the present invention, wherein substations 1 and 2 supply power to third rail sections 3A and 3B through switches 51 and 52, respec tively. Generally, a commercial frequency three-phase voltage supplied to each substation is reduced by a step-down transformer and then converted into a DC voltage. This converted DC voltage is fed into the third rail by the substation, and hence the DC current supplied to the railway vehicle 100 through the third rail 3 always contains an AC component whose frequency is six, twelve, twenty-four, etc. times as high as the com mercial frequency. A railway vehicle 100 has main motors 12 controlled by a controller 11, which may be a chopper controller as is well known. The controller 11 is connected to a power collector 6, such as a pantograph wiper, through a filter circuit including a reactor 9 and a capacitor 1G. An AC current transformer 7 coupled to the power supply circuit in the vehicle 100 senses the AC components contained in the DC current flowing through said power supply circuit. A frequency component detector 8, which may comprise appropriate band pass filters whose outputs are rectified and thresholded, receives the output of the transformer 7 and detects whether said output contains a frequency component substantially equal to the frequency of the AC ripple component contained in the DC current supplied from the substation. When no such ripple frequency component is present, which would indicate a substation disconnect, the frequency component detector 8 actuates the controller 11 to cease regenerative braking operation if such is in progress. Assuming that the vehicle 100 is in the regenerative mode of operation, regenerated current i flows to the third rail 3 through the collector 6. The AC current transformer 7 senses any AC components in the current i and feeds its output to the frequency component detector 8. Such regenerated current wil-l not, however, contain any ripple components or harmonics of the substation commercial frequency if the substation is disconnected, and will thus effect the fault disabling operation described above. Figure 3 shows an equivalent circuit of the schematic diagram shown in Figure 2, wherein a filter reactor 9, filter capacitor 10 and controller 11 are connected as impedance loads to an AC source Eac representing the ripple component in the DC current fed from the substa tion. The corresponding AC current component i con ac sequently flows in the impedance circuit. Thus, the AC component detected by the current transformer 7 will contain the AC ripple component whose frequency is six, twelve, twenty-four, etc. times as high as the commercial frequency. When the railway vehicle 100 provided with the control apparatus thus arranged is moving in the regenerating mode of operation along the third rail section 3A which is normally energized by the substation 1 through the switch 51, the AC ripple current flows in the power supply circuit of the vehicle, whereas in the third rail section 3B which is deenergized through the opened switch 52 due to a fault the AC ripple current is not present. The detector 8 then detects the output of the transformer 7 to determine whether it contains a frequency component substantially equal to the AC ripple component in the DC current fed by the substation, and when no such ripple frequency is present the detector will actuate the controller 11 to cease the regenerative braking operation. As a result no regenerative power is applied to the deenergized rail section 3B and the fault is prevented from becoming worse. Thus, according to the invention in its broadest aspect, railway vehicle control apparatus is provided which automatically interrupts regenerative braking in a direct-current power supply system when the vehicle is moving along a deenergized third rail section.

Claims: Claims: 1. An apparatus operative with a railway vehicle power supply circuit (1,2) for controlling the power regeneration operation of a railway vehicle (100) moving along a track, comprising a controller (11) for controlling main electric motors (12) of said vehicle (100), characterised by: sensing means (7) for sensing a particular component contained in a current flowing through the power supply line (6) of said vehicle (100); and detector means (8) for determining whether said sensed component contains a frequency substantially equal to the frequency of an AC ripple component normally contained in current supplied from a substation (1,2), and for preventing said controller (11) from effecting regenerative braking when said sensed component does not contain said AC ripple frequency component. 2. Apparatus in accordance with claim I characterised in that said sensing means (7) is an AC current transformer for detecting AC components contained in said current flowing through the power supply line of said vehicle (100). 3. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 or 2 characterised in that said detector means (8) is a frequency component detector. 4. A railway vehicle characterised by apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3. 5. An electric railway system including track means, a railway vehicle (100) movable on said track means, a plurality of spaced substations (1,2) for individually supplying rectified DC power containing an AC ripple frequency component to associated third rail sections (3A,3B) electrically insulated from each other, a plurality of switch means (51,52) for individually disconnecting the substations from their associated third rail sections in response to ground faults or the like, propulsive motor-generator means (12) within the vehicle, collector means (6) in wiping contact with a said third rail section for coupling electrical power to and from a power supply line of the vehicle (100), and a controller (11) in the vehicle (100) for controlling the motor-generator means (12) in either a drive mode or a regenerative braking mode, characterised by: : a) means (7) operatively associated with the vehicle power supply line for sensing the presence of AC signals; and b) means (8) responsive to the sensing means (7) for detecting whether or not sensed AC signals include an AC ripple frequency component from a substation (1,2) and for actuating the controller (11) to disable regenerative braking in the absence of such an AC ripple frequency component. 6. A system according to claim'5 characterised in that the sensing means (7) comprises a current transformer. 7. A system according to claim 5 or 6 characterised in that the detecting and actuating means (8) comprises a frequency component detector.

Inventors: KOYAMA, SHIGERU C/O MITSUBISHI DENKI K.K.
Applicants: MITSUBISHI DENKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1984
Main classification: B61L3
IPC codes: B61L3, B60L7