Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring Applied to AC Railways

Non-intrusive load monitoring takes place in residential and industrial contexts to disaggregate and identify loads connected to a distribution grid. This work studies the applicability and effectiveness for AC railways, considering the highly dynamic behavior of rolling stock as an electric load, immersed in varying contexts of moving loads. Both voltage–current diagrams and harmonic spectra were considered for identification and extraction of features relevant to classification and clustering. Principal components were extracted, approaching the problem using principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least square regression (PLSR). Clustering methods were then discussed, verifying separability performance and applicability to the railway context, checking the performance by means of the balanced accuracy index. Based on more than one hundred measured spectra, PLSR has been confirmed with superior performance and lower complexity. Independent verification based on dispersion and correlation were used to spot relevant spectrum components to use as clustering features and confirm the PLSR outcome

Track insulation verification and measurement

Methods for the measurement of track insulation are reviewed pointing out minimum necessary conditions and practical aspects, as well as consistency and repeatability of results. Track configuration, need of electrical sectioning and use of external electrodes or conductive structure are key parameters to determine suitable methods

A magnetic field probe for hostile environments

Peer Reviewe

Uncertainty and Sensitivity of the Feature Selective Validation (FSV) Method

The FSV method is a recognized validation tool that initially assesses the similarity between data sets for electromagnetic measurements and models. Its use may be extended to many problems and applications, and in particular, with relation to electrical systems, but it should be characterized in terms of its uncertainty, as for measurement tools. To this aim, the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) is applied for the propagation of uncertainty from the experimental data to the Feature Selective Validation (FSV) quantities, using Monte Carlo analysis as confirmation, which ultimately remains the most reliable approach to determine the propagation of uncertainty, given the significant FSV non-linearity. Such non-linearity in fact compromises the accuracy of the Taylor approximation supporting the use of first-order derivatives (and derivative terms in general). MCM results are instead more stable and show sensitivity vs. input data uncertainty in the order of 10 to 100, highly depending on the local data samples value. To this aim, normalized sensitivity coefficients are also reported, in an attempt to attenuate the scale effects, redistributing the observed sensitivity values that, however, remain in the said range, up to about 100

Energy Efficiency Improvement with Reversible Substations for Electrified Transportation Systems

More and more often overall energy efficiency of an electrified transportation system appears as a target of new constructions, sometimes with incomplete definitions of performance indexes to assess that target has been reached. A worked out example is based on the introduction of reversible substations. Reversible substations are a method to improve energy efficiency, whose application in an existing system can be progressive and does not require large traffic intensity to be effective. Their effectiveness depends on some system parameters (nominal catenary voltage in particular). A simulation model fed with experimental data from a line section of Metro de Madrid is used to demonstrate the operation and optimization of reversible substations

Filter transients onboard DC rolling stock and exploitation for the estimate of the line impedance

Power supply transients in dc railways related to filter charging may trigger network and filter oscillatory responses, as well as cause very fast voltage spikes. These phenomena are relevant not only for Power Quality and EMC, but also for their impact on the measured pantograph quantities e.g. for power and energy consumption estimate. The broadband excitation of the system gives the possibility of attempting the identification of the network impedance. The experimental results are discussed and compared to the output of a circuit and a distributed parameter simulator. Matching between simulated and experimental data is very good

Estudio no destructivo del interior de piezas de valor histórico mediante gammagrafías

La tecnología de Tomografía de Hormigón Armado desarrollada por THASA ha sido aplicada al estudio de piezas ornamentales y otras de valor histórico con el objeto de examinar el interior de las mismas e investigar, en algunos casos, la existencia, configuración y condición de refuerzos metálicos y en otro caso, la existencia de huecos producidos por termitas en vigas de madera. En este trabajo se discuten detalles metodológicos y resultados alcanzados en los casos de las estatuas ubicadas en el coronamiento del Palacio de Tribunales en la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, en dragones colgantes de las torres de la Basílica de Luján y en las vigas del techo de la Capilla Doméstica, construida en 1660 y declarada patrimonio de la humanidad por la UNESCO, ubicada en la manzana jesuítica en la Ciudad de Córdoba. El carácter pionero de la investigación de oquedades en madera realizada en este último caso hizo necesario la construcción de modelos de simulación que resultan de utilidad para otras aplicaciones similares

Application of a semi-microscopic core-particle coupling method to the backbending in odd deformed nuclei

In two previous papers, the Kerman-Klein-Donau-Frauendorf (KKDF) model was used to study rotational bands of odd deformed nuclei. Here we describe backbending for odd nuclei using the same model. The backbending in the neighboring even nuclei is described by a phenomenological two band model, and this core is then coupled to a large single-particle space, as in our previous work. The results obtained for energies and M1 transition rates are compared with experimental data for 165Lu and for energies alone to the experimental data for 179W. For the case of 165Lu comparison is also made with previous theoretical work.Comment: 16 pages including 8 figure(postscript), submitted to Phys.Rev.

How pantograph electric arcs affect energy efficiency in DC railway vehicles

In DC electrified railways pantograph electric arcs represent not only a disturbance, but the step change of the pantograph voltage affects power losses directly and indirectly. The available line voltage is reduced if the train is in traction condition, the arc itself is characterized by ohmic power losses, and the triggered oscillating transient responses are characterized by a net power loss. In addition, if arc occurs during braking the arc voltage suddenly increases the pantograph voltage and may interfere with the dissipative braking chopper, reducing the recovered energy. This work presents the model and analysis of these phenomena with experimental results for arcs measured on a 3 kV dc line in traction and braking conditions

Statistical characterization of the 2.45 GHz propagation channel aboard trains

The propagation channel aboard trains is investigated with reference to the propagation path loss within cars, the delay spread and the coherence bandwidth. Results show that the path loss exponent is slightly smaller than in free space, possibly due to reflections by metal walls, and that it does not depend significantly on the position of transmitter and receiver. The delay spread and coherence bandwidth depend on both the polarization and distance between transmitter and receiver while the effect of interaction is not statistically significant. The best fit for both delay spread\u2019s and coherence bandwidth\u2019s experimental distribution is also investigated. Results show that it does not always match models suggested in the literature and that the fit changes with the values of the input parameters. Finally, the functional law between coherence bandwidth and delay spread is determined. Results typically match expectations although the specific measurement configuration effects the model parameters