Government Polytechnic Muzaffarpur

Name of the Lab: Electric Traction-II Lab

Subject Code: 1620609A

Experiment-1

Aim: Study of various traction systems.

Theory:

A traction system is of mainly two type’s namely non-electrical traction system and electric
traction system.
In Non Electrical Traction system electrical energy is not used at any stage for its propulsion.
There are various types of non-electrical systems:
i. Steam Engine drive.
ii. I.C. Engine drive.
This system is used since 1925 in India. Which started with steam engine drive, it is a self-
contained unit.
In Electric Traction systems following drives are used.
i. Diesel engine electric drive.
ii. Petrol engine electric drive.
iii. Battery operated electric drive.
iv. Electric drive.

NON ELECTRICAL TRACTION

STEAM ENGINE DRIVE:

For railway work steam locomotives are most widely used for propulsion method. Reciprocating
steam engines are most commonly used for railway train everywhere. A steam engine drive has
following main features:
1. It has simple construction w.r.t its connection between cylinders and the driving wheels and it
has also very smooth speed control.
2. It has operational dependability for fuel & water.
3. Its maintenance is simple but time taken 8 to 12 hr.
4. Its efficiency about 8 to 10%.
5. It has limited overload capacity.
6. It causes considerable wear and tear on rails due to its reciprocating action.

DIRECT I.C. ENGINE DRIVE:

This traction system is widely used for road transport like buses, trucks and cars etc. IC Engine
has efficiency of about 25% at its normal speed of 600 to 1000 rpm. At other speed it is very
uneconomical. It has constant torque at any speed, so it can be used for light traction duty and for
heavy railway train. Its performance is not satisfactory. Speed control can be obtained by gear
box arrangements.
This system has following advantages:

1. It has low initial cost and hence it is the cheapest drive.

2. It is a self-contained unit; hence it can be operated on any route.
3. It has very simple speed control and braking system.
4. Its efficiency is higher compared to steam locomotives.

This system has following disadvantages:

1. The life of propelling equipment is very less compared to other drives.

2. It has a very low overload capacity@10%.
3. Its operation is uneconomical at other than normal speed.
4. Its operation cost is varying due to varying fuel cost.
5. It has high maintenance cost.

ELECTRIC TRACTION DRIVES:

Diesel electric drive:

In this system IC engine is used to generate electricity by means of generator coupled to it. This
generator supplies electric power to the electric motor which drives the locomotive. In 1945 for
the short services on broad gauge lines and in 1956 for main line operation on meter gauge
services. Diesel electric locomotive were introduce. As compared with steam locomotive it can
be said that steam locomotive consume about 30 kg of coal while diesel electric locomotives
consume about 7.5kg of diesel oil. Diesel electric system may be more suitable for remote and
hilly areas which are for away from the coal mines. The diesel electric locomotives produce
more torque as compared to steam locomotive and it provides more rate of acceleration. There is
no smoke and dust which reduce pollution problem diesel electric locomotive provides more
comfort to the passengers.
In Indian railways following four types of diesel electric locomotives are in use:
1. The main line diesel electric locomotives having capacity up to 2000 HP and it can run the
train at speed about 160 kmph.
2. Shunting locomotives having capacity of 300-500 HP range its maximum speed is between 20
to 50 kmph.
3. Diesel electric multiple unit (MEMW) stock were each motor coaching engine capacity of 180
to 200 HP and it has a speed range 80 to 110 kmph.
4. A diesel electric rail car (locomotive) having capacity up to 60 HP with one or more trailer
coaches.

PETROL ELECTRIC DRIVE:

This system is used in heavy duty trucks, buses etc. due to electric conversion if provides very
smooth drive and speed. It can have capability to move slowly on up gradient at an imperceptible
speed and creeping to steepest slop.
BATTERY (ELECTRIC) DRIVE:

In this system there is vehicle, which carries secondary cell batteries. These batteries supply
power to the driving motors such drive is used for small distance travel and light duty services. It
is generally used for shunting in railways yards mines for delivery of goo in cities and for
transportations of big part in industries, docket etc. It offers very operational control it has less
weight. It has maximum daily run of 45 to 60 km. In view of limited ampere-hour capacity.
Batteries are required to be charged. Battery vehicles are started by series –parallel grouping of
batteries at half speed.
 Government Polytechnic Muzaffarpur
Name of the Lab: Electric Traction-II Lab
Subject Code: 1620609A

Experiment-2

Aim: Study of Relays and Contactors.

Theory:

Relays:

The Indian Railways electric locomotives, mainly three categories of relays are utilized, namely
protection relays, sequencing relays and time delay relays.

As the name implies, the protection relays are used to protect certain groups of equipment in the
loco such as the power circuits, the auxiliary circuits, the rectifiers, the transformer, etc. Further
the protection relays may be of two types; one used to protect against overloads and another type
to protect against earth faults. They work on different principles. The overload relays monitor the
circuit by sensing the current flowing through the circuit while the earth fault relays used a small
superimposed voltage from the battery to detect any untoward leakage.

In all the protection relays, a small red disc is provided in the back of a transparent plastic
window. Whenever the relay operates on a fault, the red disc appears in the window to indicate
the operation of the relay. The relay can be reset by turning a small knob on the face.

The protection relays come in two configurations, namely latching and non-latching. A latching
relay will lock out if it operates on a fault and will need manual resetting by turning the knob and
in case of non-latching relay, it will remain free even after an operation on fault though it still
displays the red flag.

The latching relay is mainly used for the protection of the main power transformer as an added
precaution.

The second category of relays is the sequencing relays. These relays have both Normally Open
and Normally Closed contacts and are used for the interlocking of control circuits in the
locomotive and to provide the proper logic for the operation of various equipment in the
locomotive. A large number of such relays are used with a complex circuit.

Nowadays, majority of these relays are replaced with a microprocessor based system called the
MPFDCS (Microprocessor based fault and diagnostic control system). This system has improved
the reliability as well as troubleshooting of the locomotive. At present the IR has a sizeable
population of both relay based and MPFDCS based locomotives.
The third category of relays is time delay relays which is a subset of the sequence relays and
used to introduce on or off time delay in certain circuits.

Coming to the relays used in overhead supply system, the main category of the relays used are
the protection relays at substations while a few control relays may be used for monitoring and
control of the system. However, this is also being replaced by microprocessor based systems.

Contactors:

A contactor is an electrically controlled switch (relay) used for switching an electrical power
circuit. A contactor is typically controlled by a circuit which has a much lower power level than
the switched circuit, such as a 24-volt coil electromagnet controlling a 230-volt motor switch.
Contactors come in many forms with varying capacities and features. Unlike a circuit breaker, a
contactor is not intended to interrupt a short circuit current. Contactors range from those having a
breaking current of several amperes to thousands of amperes and 24 V DC to many kilovolts.
The physical size of contactors ranges from a device small enough to pick up with one hand, to
large devices approximately a meter (yard) on a side.
Contactors are used to control electric motors, lighting, heating, capacitor banks, thermal
evaporators, and other electrical loads.
A contactor has three components. The contacts are the current carrying part of the contactor.
This includes power contacts, auxiliary contacts, and contact springs. The electromagnet (or
"coil") provides the driving force to close the contacts. The enclosure is a frame housing the
contacts and the electromagnet. Enclosures are made of insulating materials such
as Bakelite, Nylon 6, and thermosetting plastics to protect and insulate the contacts and to
provide some measure of protection against personnel touching the contacts. Open-frame
contactors may have a further enclosure to protect against dust, oil, explosion hazards and
weather.
Magnetic blowouts use blowout coils to lengthen and move the electric arc. These are especially
useful in DC power circuits. AC arcs have periods of low current, during which the arc can be
extinguished with relative ease, but DC arcs have continuous high current, so blowing them out
requires the arc to be stretched further than an AC arc of the same current. The magnetic
blowouts in the pictured Albright contactor (which is designed for DC currents) more than
double the current it can break, increasing it from 600 A to 1,500 A.
Sometimes an economizer circuit is also installed to reduce the power required to keep a
contactor closed; an auxiliary contact reduces coil current after the contactor closes. A somewhat
greater amount of power is required to initially close a contactor than is required to keep it
closed. Such a circuit can save a substantial amount of power and allow the energized coil to stay
cooler. Economizer circuits are nearly always applied on direct-current contactor coils and on
large alternating current contactor coils.
A basic contactor will have a coil input (which may be driven by either an AC or DC supply
depending on the contactor design). The coil may be energized at the same voltage as a motor the
contactor is controlling, or may be separately controlled with a lower coil voltage better suited to
control by programmable controllers and lower-voltage pilot devices. Certain contactors have
series coils connected in the motor circuit; these are used, for example, for automatic
acceleration control, where the next stage of resistance is not cut out until the motor current has
dropped.
Unlike general-purpose relays, contactors are designed to be directly connected to high-current
load devices. Relays tend to be of lower capacity and are usually designed for both normally
closed and normally open applications. Devices switching more than 15 amperes or in circuits
rated more than a few kilowatts are usually called contactors. Apart from optional auxiliary low-
current contacts, contactors are almost exclusively fitted with normally open ("form A")
contacts. Unlike relays, contactors are designed with features to control and suppress the arc
produced when interrupting heavy motor currents.
When current passes through the electromagnet, a magnetic field is produced, which attracts the
moving core of the contactor? The electromagnet coil draws more current initially, until
its inductance increases when the metal core enters the coil. The moving contact is propelled by
the moving core; the force developed by the electromagnet holds the moving and fixed contacts
together. When the contactor coil is de-energized, gravity or a spring returns the electromagnet
core to its initial position and opens the contacts.
For contactors energized with alternating current, a small part of the core is surrounded with a
shading coil, which slightly delays the magnetic flux in the core. The effect is to average out the
alternating pull of the magnetic field and so prevent the core from buzzing at twice line
frequency.
Because arcing and consequent damage occurs just as the contacts are opening or closing,
contactors are designed to open and close very rapidly; there is often an internal tipping point
mechanism to ensure rapid action.
Rapid closing can, however, lead to increase contact bounce which causes additional unwanted
open-close cycles. One solution is to have bifurcated contacts to minimize contact bounce; two
contacts designed to close simultaneously, but bounce at different times so the circuit will not be
briefly disconnected and cause an arc.
A slight variant has multiple contacts designed to engage in rapid succession. The first to make
contact and last to break will experience the greatest contact wear and will form a high-resistance
connection that would cause excessive heating inside the contactor. However, in doing so, it will
protect the primary contact from arcing, so a low contact resistance will be established a
millisecond later.
Result:
Relays and contactors have been studied successfully.
 Government Polytechnic Muzaffarpur
Name of the Lab: Electric Traction-II Lab
Subject Code: 1620609A

Experiment-4

Aim: Study of overload protection, earth fault protection of power and auxiliary circuit.

Theory:
Protection system of Tap changer locomotive is primitive based on the technology prevailing
during 50s. This was imported along with WAG1 class of locomotive and continued to be
followed with all class of locomotive developed later on. The protection system comprises of
instantaneous relay detecting over current in AC and DC system. DC system is floating and any
one fault results in tripping with provision of isolation of equipment or relay so that locomotive
can work up to destination.
Tap changer electric locomotive:

Relays and system important for safety of locomotive towards fire

ET1 and ET2 the protection of the locomotive against surge voltage is secured by means of two
roof surge arrestors with spark dischargers ET 1 (mounted on a support insulator of the HT Roof
Bars) and ET 2 (mounted on the HT input terminal of the locomotive). are with air sparking gap
of —-mm and discharge the surge voltage. Presently surge arresters are being
provided. Instantaneous Over current Protection- High Voltage Overload Relay QLM The relay
QLM is fed by means of the high voltage current transformer TFILM (250/5A) which causes the
high voltage circuit breaker DJ to trip , if the current taken in by main transformer exceeds the
setting value of the relay (300 A). The relay protects from over current drawn by 25kV system in
the locomotive namely transformer, tap changer, roof bushing etc. and also acts as a secondary
protection for rectifier and traction motor. Relay is popularly called QLM relay. Initially, QLM
was provided with auto-resetting mechanism wherein loco pilot can energize the locomotive.
There were cases of fire on locos and investigation stated that loco pilot shall not energize the
locomotive without inspection of HT compartment and this led to the modification of provision
of manual resetting mechanism. Some of the Railways has decided not to permit resetting and
accepts line failure of locomotive with a view that there will not be any transient tripping through
safety relay QLM. Transformer: Transformer is filled with mineral oil. A secondary safety
protection by way of pressure relief valve called safety vale is also provided. Any fault in the
transformer, causes QLM tripping as well as safety value blowing. Most likely QLM is not
acting as primary protection. On Line Tap Changer: There are 32 taps in tap changer popularly
called GR for on line tap changing. GR is filled with mineral oil to prevent formation of arc
during tap changing on load. This is very intensive duty equipment and any fault results QLM
dropping and simultaneous blowing of safety value. Here also QLM not acting as primary
protection. Tap changer is protected from sticking up in between notches and on notch by relay
called Q44 and Q46. There are also directive that locomotive shall not be allowed to work with
Q44 in wedged/packed condition as the most important protection to GR gets bypassed.

Earth Fault Relay for protection of 1500V power circuit for Traction Motor and associated
circuit:

Relay is popularly called QOP. 750V DC circuit is floating potential and divided into two
circuits consisting of one number rectifier block, smoothing reactor and three traction motors. In
floating circuit, if there is one fault, nothing will happen because circuit is not complete but as
soon second fault takes place; heavy fault current flows depending fault resistance. It results
tripping through QOP, QRSI and sometime smoke emission. It is, therefore, important to identify
the fault condition immediately on first fault. Functioning of the circuit is as shown below:
It is important to note that Indian Railways has adopted floating power supply system for all
purpose on board locomotive/EMU/Coach except 25kV which is returned to earth. Similar
circuit is followed with different variations. Current in a circuit varies from 1000A to 3000A and
there is not protection towards any loose connection where overheating may takes place and
smoke/fie if there is any flammable item nearby. As per norms no flammable item shall be used
in rolling stock.