Design and Testing of an Innovative Pressure-Controlled Active Pantograph through Hardware-in-the-Loop Experiments

On railways with overhead lines, pantographs play a crucial role in electric trains. Maintaining the contact force between the pantograph and the overhead line is essential to ensure the robustness of the power supply and to minimise mechanical wear. This paper proposes an innovative pneumatic pressure-controlled active pantograph, tested through Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) experiments. The proposed easy-to-implement active pantograph is achieved by controlling the air pressure entering the pantograph. The controller design is based on an identified linear model, considering disturbance rejection performance and control input limitations. Experimental results show that the closed-loop active pantograph can robustly and effectively reduce the contact force deviation. This highlights the capability of designing active pantographs through pressure control and model-based design philosophy to achieve improved pantograph–catenary contact performance

A novel Active Control of Trolleybus Current Collection System (ACTCCS)

The trolleybus has been a popular public transport vehicle for more than a hundred years across the world. However, the typical features of double passive pantograph-booms with two-wire overhead line often creates complicated catenary webs (particularly at crossroads) and can result in easily de-wiring and arcing issues. In this thesis, a novel concept of Active Control of Trolleybus Current Collection System (ACTCCS) is introduced with actuator-controlled solo-pantograph and single overhead line (catenary formed by two wires fitted on a frame with enough electric clearance and creep) as well as electric (traction)-electric (battery or supercapacitor backup) hybrid (E-E hybrid) propulsion. [Continues.

Power Quality in Electrified Transportation Systems

"Power Quality in Electrified Transportation Systems" has covered interesting horizontal topics over diversified transportation technologies, ranging from railways to electric vehicles and ships. Although the attention is chiefly focused on typical railway issues such as harmonics, resonances and reactive power flow compensation, the integration of electric vehicles plays a significant role. The book is completed by some additional significant contributions, focusing on the interpretation of Power Quality phenomena propagation in railways using the fundamentals of electromagnetic theory and on electric ships in the light of the latest standardization efforts

Non-invasive dynamic condition assessment techniques for railway pantographs

The railway industry desires to improve the dependability and longevity of railway pantographs by providing more effective maintenance. The problem addressed in this thesis is the development of an effective condition-based fault detection and diagnosis procedure capable of supporting improved on–condition maintenance actions. A laboratory-based pantograph test rig established during the course of the project at the University of Birmingham has been enhanced with additional sensors and used to develop and carry out dynamic tests that provide indicators that support practical pantograph fault detection and diagnosis. A 3D multibody simulation of a Pendolino pantograph has also been developed. Three distinct dynamic tests have been identified as useful for fault detection and diagnosis: (i) a hysteresis test; (ii) a frequency-response test; and (iii) a novel changing-gradient test. These tests were carried out on a new Pendolino pantograph, a used pantograph about to go for an overhaul, the new pantograph with individual parts replaced by old components, and on the new pantograph with various changes made to, for example, the greasing or chain tightness. Through a comparison of absolute measurements and features acquired from the three dynamic tests, it was possible to extract features associated with different failure modes. Finally, with a focus on the practical constraints of depot operations, a condition-based pantograph fault detection and diagnosis routine is proposed that draws on decision tree analysis. This novel testing procedure integrates the three dynamic tests and is able to identify and locate common failure modes on pantographs. The approach is considered to be appropriate for an application using an adapted version of the test rig in a depot setting

Design analysis of short neutral section through dynamic modelling of performance

PhD ThesisUK railway overhead line electrification employs a feature known as ‘short’ neutral section which uses insulators spliced into the contact wire to separate the electrical phases, and they are known as a cause of reliability problems. This research proposes to develop, validate and apply a hitherto unexplored approach to studying short neutral section behaviour. This research briefly initially examines the experience of British Rail with the introduction of the ceramic bead neutral section and its development during the 80s and 90s, and the subsequent introduction and development of a further proprietary type in the early 2000s, which is then assessed in detail. Using information from Network Rail, the significant failures of the main types of neutral sections are examined over a 10 year period for which adequate data exists. European practice is briefly examined. Current methods for analysing the interaction of pantograph and overhead lines are investigated, and the principles are adopted into a bespoke methodology implemented using proprietary software Ansys, rather than custom code as is current widespread practice. This methodology is constructed using finite element and multi-body principles and is successfully validated against ‘benchmarks’, in accordance with current European practice and standards. Mathematical models of a neutral section are constructed using their physical characteristics and data captured in lab tests, and the behaviour against real UK pantographs is simulated using this method. Findings are again successfully validated against real line test data. Using the result, the sensitivity of the neutral section performance to particular parameters of its construction is tested, allowing opportunities for optimisation to be identified, and improvements proposed, successfully demonstrating a (previously untried) validated methodology for examining the neutral section problem. This work has answered all its research questions

Proceedings of the YIC 2021 - VI ECCOMAS Young Investigators Conference

The 6th ECCOMAS Young Investigators Conference YIC2021 will take place from July 7th through 9th, 2021 at Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain. The main objective is to bring together in a relaxed environment young students, researchers and professors from all areas related with computational science and engineering, as in the previous YIC conferences series organized under the auspices of the European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS). Participation of senior scientists sharing their knowledge and experience is thus critical for this event.YIC 2021 is organized at Universitat Politécnica de València by the Sociedad Española de Métodos Numéricos en Ingeniería (SEMNI) and the Sociedad Española de Matemática Aplicada (SEMA). It is promoted by the ECCOMAS.The main goal of the YIC 2021 conference is to provide a forum for presenting and discussing the current state-of-the-art achievements on Computational Methods and Applied Sciences,including theoretical models, numerical methods, algorithmic strategies and challenging engineering applications.Nadal Soriano, E.; Rodrigo Cardiel, C.; Martínez Casas, J. (2022). Proceedings of the YIC 2021 - VI ECCOMAS Young Investigators Conference. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/YIC2021.2021.15320EDITORIA

30th International Conference on Condition Monitoring and Diagnostic Engineering Management (COMADEM 2017)

Proceedings of COMADEM 201

Improved railway vehicle inspection and monitoring through the integration of multiple monitoring technologies

The effectiveness and efficiency of railway vehicle condition monitoring is increasingly critical to railway operations as it directly affects safety, reliability, maintenance efficiency, and overall system performance. Although there are a vast number of railway vehicle condition monitoring technologies, wayside systems are becoming increasingly popular because of the reduced cost of a single monitoring point, and because they do not interfere with the existing railway line. Acoustic sensing and visual imaging are two wayside monitoring technologies that can be applied to monitor the condition of vehicle components such as roller bearing, gearboxes, couplers, and pantographs, etc. The central hypothesis of this thesis is that it is possible to integrate acoustic sensing and visual imaging technologies to achieve enhancement in condition monitoring of railway vehicles. So this thesis presents improvements in railway vehicle condition monitoring through the integration of acoustic sensing and visual imaging technologies

Sustainability and Related Factors of High Speed Railways

High-Speed Railways (HSR), which represent a safe and sustainable mode of transportation, provide access and mobility for the society, and support the growth of the economy in addition to creating new jobs, supporting welfare, and promoting local business activities. This research addresses the shortage of knowledge in evaluating the performance of selected HSR systems and in distinguishing the factors that contribute to the sustainable performance of HSRs. The aim of this study is to evaluate the sustainability of selected HSRs and identify factors that affect such sustainability. The objectives of this research are to evaluate productivity, technical and technological efficiency of the selected HSRs, define the factors that can affect productivity and efficiency scores and make suggestions for improving the sustainability of HSRs. The secondary data methodology has been used, supported by empirical evidence. Most of the data was gathered from the Internet, research in depth of the high-speed railways in the selected countries, and International Union of Railway’s websites in addition to analysing railway statistics and data from European and institutional publications. This includes the use of a multi-stage approach of applying three specialised software packages, namely, NVivo, DEA, and ISM SPSS. The main findings show that HSRs in Asia has higher productivity and higher efficiency scores than that of HSRs in Europe. The research found that the key factors among all the identified factors that affected the productivity and efficiency of HSRs are; density of population, average traction power of HSR trains, average time that passengers spend on trains and average distance that passengers travel on the HSR. The findings of this research can help develop strategic guidelines to improve the performance and, by the result, the sustainability of HSRs. The recommendations are drawn for more research expansion, including the consideration of other HSRs, particularly their best practices