Regenerative Braking in Train

Submitted by
Pratap Singh
(18RR60S08)

Indian Railways is considered as the lifeline of the

nation.It traverses the length and breadth of the
country providing the required connectivity and
integration for balanced regional development
At present Indian Railways consumes about 43.01
MWh per day for electric traction operations, in which
only 2.12 MWh energy per day is generated by using
regenerative braking in Indian Railways. This energy
is completely used for meeting traction requirements
and is not being utilized for non-traction electricity
requirements.
Around 6.84 MWh energy per day is consumed by
nontraction sources of 8000 stations, colonies,
manufacturing workshops ,diesel sheds,electric sheds
and coaching depots in Indian Railways.
The idea is to store train braking energy in storage
system ,composed of batteries and super-capacitors
cells and to reuse it at different moments of the day to
cater various kind of station needs
BRAKING PRINCIPLES-
Braking is used to control the speed of the running
train or to bring it to a stop . The brake used in railway
vehicles can be classified according to the method of
their activation into following categories
1-Pneumatic Brake
2-Mechanical Brake
3-Electromagnetic Brake
4-Electrodynamic Brake
Pneumatic Brake is again of two types
Vacuum Brake and
Compressed air brake

Pneumatic brake is a friction brake in which

compressed air presses on the piston that applies
pressure on the braking pad. Vacuum brake is no
longer used as it has many limitations like fading of
brake power, pressure gradient in long trains, longer
emergency braking distance
Mechanical braking systems use: wheel tread brakes,
axle-mounted disc brakes and wheel-mounted disc
brakes.
These brake mechanisms use a brake shoe that
applies friction force to the disc.
Such braking is not suitable for high speed trains
beacause it cause the high damage to wheel tread
Regenerative brake system
Introduction -
Regenerative braking refers to a system in which the
kinetic energy of the vehicle is stored temporarily, as
an accumulative energy, during deceleration, and is
reused as kinetic energy during acceleration or
running. Regenerative braking is a small, yet very
important, step toward our eventual independence
from fossil fuels.
Unlike conventional train braking system where power
is lost as dissipated heat,
When regenerative braking is used ,electric motor
mounted on axle generate electricity which can be
used for offset the power demand from of other loads
such as lighting in train system
Power recovered via regenerative braking can only be
used if that power is simultaneously being drawn
overhead
Motor as a generator-
Vehicles driven by electric motors use the motor as a
generator when using regenerative braking, it is
operated as a generator during braking and its output
is supplied to an electrical load; the transfer of energy
to the load provides the braking effect.. This energy is
saved in a storage battery and used later to power the
motor whenever the vehicle is in electric mode.
ADVANTAGES
Energy saving
Reduced wear of mechanical brakes