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INTRODUCTION
1.1
ELECTRIC TRACTION
The act of drawing or the state of being drawn i.e. the propulsion of vehicle is called
the Traction and the system of traction involving the use of electricity is called
Electric Traction System. There are various systems of traction prevailing in the
world such as steam engine drive, internal combustion engine drive, diesel electric
drive, battery electric drive, straight electric drive and the most recent trend of hybrid
electric drive. These systems of traction may be classified broadly into two main
groups namely(i) The traction systems which do not involve the use of electricity at any
stage and called non-electric traction system such as steam engine drive, internal
combustion engine drive etc.
(ii) The traction systems which involve the use of electricity at some stage or
the other and called electric traction system such as diesel electric drive, straight
electric drive, battery driven drive etc.
System of electric traction can further be divided into two main groups(i) The group consisting of vehicles which receive power from a distribution
network fed at suitable points from either a central power station or substations
suitably spaced such as tramways, trolley bus, electric railways etc.
(ii) The group consisting of self contained locomotives such as diesel electric
trains, ships, petrol electric trucks and Lorries, battery driven road vehicles.
1.1.1
Electric drives are more reliable, flexible and suitable for traction purpose rather than
conventional engine driven vehicle. But storage of electrical energy is the main
obstruction in this technology as batteries stores a much less amount of energy
compare to the energy stored in fuels. Therefore the mileage of an electric vehicle is
much less than conventional vehicle. The problem can be solved by increasing the
capacity of the batteries, which is not a good solution considering the both technical
and economical viability. One possible solution can be obtained by reducing the
power consumption of the traction motor. To reduce the power rating of the motor
with a given vehicle performance and energy storage, the motor is required to have a
long constant power range to meet the load torque and demand [1]
The ideal characteristic of an electric motor drive for traction application are high
torque at low speed region for fault acceleration, hill climbing and obstacle
negotiation and low torque at high speed for normal driving. To minimize the power
of the motor as well as the energy storage power rating as a given vehicle
performance, the motor drive is required to have long constant power rage
application [1]. The essential requirements for electric traction are
Power to weight ratio of the traction motor should be high so that it occupies
less space.
1.1.2
Electric drives for traction purpose are available in wide range of torque,
speed and power. Electric motors have high efficiency, low losses and
considerable amount of overloading capacity. They are adaptable to almost
any operating condition.
Electric drives can be used operate in all four quadrants of speed torque plane
which is very suitable for forward and backward movements of the vehicle as
well as braking.
Better flexibility in operation and less maintenance (about 50% less compare
to engine driven system) [6].
storage system such as battery or recently developed fuel-cells. The following Table
1.1 can visualize a clear idea on this subject.
TABLE 1.1: ENERGY STORAGE CAPABILITY OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF FUELS AND
ELECTROCHEMICAL/ELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS [6]
Sl.
No.
Energy contain
Energy Contain
(Wh/kg)
(Wh/Litre)
Gasoline
12300
9348
Natural gas
9350
7480
Methanol
6200
4904
Kerosene
5300
4500
Coal
8200
Battery (Lead-Acid)
35
40-100
Electrochemical Capacitor
5-15
Flywheel
15
10
Spring
0.1-.0.3
11
Solar Thermal
900 Wh/day
12
Solar PV
500 Wh/day
Small capacity of the battery and the necessity of frequent charging. the
charging time is more or less very long.
Limited battery life. Needs to be replaced after 3-4 years at a regular interval.
Batteries are costly and their frequent and regular replacement may not be
proven economically viable and cost effective.
1.2
Ideal profile of torque speed characterization of EV is divided into two parts i.e. the
constant torque region and the constant power region. The vehicle performance is
completely determined by the profile of tractive effect verses vehicle speed. For a
power source with a given power rating, the profile of tractive effort versus vehicle
speed should be constant power in the speed range that is the tractive effect drops
hyperbolically with the increase of the vehicle speed as shown in Figure 1.1.
allow the motor to operate at any point in the torque-speed plane. It is the profile of
this envelops which determines the drive selection criteria and design.
A typical traction load characteristic curve is shown in Figure 1.2.
Figure 1.3. Acceleration and Final Speed (Balancing Speed) of electric vehicle. The
point of balancing speed is the operating speed of the motor which determines the
final speed of the vehicle. [12]
1.3
The primary requirements of electric motors used for traction purpose are1.3.1
MECHANICAL FEATURES
A traction motor must be robust and capable to withstand continuous
vibrations since service conditions are extremely severe.
The traction motor must be totally enclosed type, particularly when mounted
beneath the locomotive or the motor coach, to provide protection against
ingress of dirt, dust, water and mud etc.
For magnetic circuit of traction motor cast iron, which cannot suitable
continuous vibration, is not suitable. Use of cast steel or fabricated steel,
which gives more mechanical strength, is made in place of cast iron. Those
parts of the motor, which are not highly stressed, must be made of pressed or
fabricated steel plates and light alloys.
1.3.2
ELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Simple speed control The traction motor must be amenable to simple speed
control as the an electric train or vehicle have to be started and stopped very
often.
Parallel running In traction work, usually more than one motor (two or four
motors per car) are required. Traction motors, therefore, should be of such
speed-torque and current-torque characteristics that, when they are operated
in parallel and mechanically coupled, they share the loads almost equally.
No such motors meet the all the requirements mentioned above. Most suitable
motors for DC traction systems are series and compound motors whereas for ac
traction systems single phase series and three phase induction motors are
employed.
TABLE 1.2: TYPICAL TORQUE DENSITY VALUES FOR DIFFERENT MOTOR TYPES [1]
Permanent Magnet
T/Volume envelop
(N-m/m3)
28860
T/Cu mass
N-m/kg-Cu
28.7-48
Induction motor
4170
6.6
Switch Reluctance
6780
6.1
Machine Type
Table 1.2 shows that the PM machines provide the highest torque density and
therefore will potentially have the lowest weight for given torque and power rating.
However, the fixed flux limits its extended speed range as the feature of field
weakening like brushed DC motors are not available. The induction motor and switch
reluctance motor have the similar torque densities.
10
demonstrates
long
field
weakening
operation[ 10].
This approach,
A contactless control
scheme for extending the speed range of a four-pole induction motor was presented
in [9]. This scheme uses two inverters, each of half the rated power rating that, in
theory, can extend the constant power
Operating range to 4 times the base speed, for a motor, that would otherwise be
limited to 2 times the base speed. It may be mentioned here that the torque control in
induction motor is achieved through PWM control of the current. in order to retain
the current control capability in the extended speed constant power range, the
motor is required to enter the field weakening range before reaching the base
speed, so that it has adequate voltage margin to control the current[l2]. This would,
however, oversize the motor slightly. Current regulation with synchronous current
regulator [I31 may be preferred choice. It can regulate current with lower voltage
margin. The availability of a long field weakened range, obviously, makes the
induction very suitable for vehicle application.
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SRM can inherently operate with extremely long constant power range. The serial
design and simulation results, performed in the SRM research group at Texas
A&M University, show that the speed ratio can reach up to 6-8 times. This long
constant power range makes SRM highly favorable for vehicle traction application.
Electric drives are more reliable, flexible and suitable for traction purpose rather than
conventional engine driven vehicles. But storage of electrical energy is the main
obstruction in this technology as batteries stores a much less amount of energy
compare to the energy stored in fuels. Therefore the mileage of an electric vehicle is
much less than conventional vehicle. The problem can be solved by increasing the
capacity of the batteries, which is not a good solution considering the both technical
and economical viability. One possible solution can be obtained by reducing the
power consumption of the traction motor. To reduce the power rating of the motor
with a given vehicle performance and energy storage, the motor is required to have a
long constant power range to meet the load torque and demand [1]. By analyzing the
different characteristics of different types of motors, it has been found that, DC series
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motors are the most suitable type of motor for traction. But for a reliable operation
the motor rating must be increased to such a value which would increase the total
cost of the system. On the other hand DC motors has some disadvantages like field
control method is not flexible, speed of the motor is less than other types of up to a
certain region and finally, effective regenerative braking is not possible as the motor
becomes unstable during regenerative braking.
The objective of the thesis will be to design a control circuit to verify the theory that
has been stated above. Only a few studies have been carried out in this topic by
several researchers. To strengthen the theory, the family of curves shown in figure 2
should be closely observed [1].
Fig.1.4 : Tractive effort and power versus vehicle speed with different speed
ratio, X [1]
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Fig. 1.4 shows that with higher value of speed ratio (i.e. low base speed) the power
rating of the motor will be less. But the final speed of the vehicle will be very less
which implies that the vehicle will move with a very low speed. By observing the
Torque- Speed Characteristics of DC motors, it has been found that the speed of a
shunt motor will be much higher than the series motor within a particular region. As
the full load torque of a vehicle is much less than the starting torque the (the value of
the load torque changes hyperbolically), conversion of the motor from series to shunt
will match the load torque and the same time speed of the vehicle will be increased.
In addition to these, the final speed of the vehicle can be increased by 2-3 times
which will certainly be a great outcome from the project. Figure 1.5 shows the
relation between the power rating and speed ration of a traction motor.
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Longer constant power range operation of the motor effectively reduces the
motor power rating.
So, if any motor chosen and designed for the purpose of electric traction is capable of
prolonging its constant power range operation, it would suit most for the traction
application as its characteristics would exactly represent the characteristics expected
from a traction motor. A figure in terms of Power, Tractive Effort, Speed and
Traction load would provide a detail idea as shown in Figure 1.6.
Figure 1.6. . Tractive effort along with Motor Power, base speed and final speed.
A Compound motor provided with winding change over facility should outdo the
performance of DC series motor. This will enable the motor to operate at three
different configurations Compound, Series and Shunt where later it would be
shown that, only two configurations are suffice to obtain the desirable performance,
i.e. the compound and shunt. This is due to the fact that, whatever the characteristics
desired from series configuration can very well be achieved from the compound
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configuration. This would suit the traction characteristics more. Switching between
the windings will prolong the constant power range operation of the motor.
An experimental investigation on the Torque-speed characteristics would provide the
justification of the claim as shown in Figure 1.6.
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for a self excited motor which includes all possible combination of the motor. Thus
the motor exhibit such characteristics which are highly expected for an ideal traction
motor and very much suitable for traction application.
Figure 1.8. . Power and Torque profile of a DC machine for three different
configurations
According to the traction load characteristic, it can be very easily obtained from
Figure 1.9 that, winding change over feature would enable the vehicle to operate at a
higher final velocity. The overall speed, torque and power profile due to winding
change over are given in Figure.10.
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Figure 1.9. . Torque and speed profile of a DC machine for three different
configurations to show the possibility of achieving a higher starting torque and
higher final vehicle speed if change over in configuration takes place.
Figure 1.10. Torque and Power profile of the motor as a function of speed due to
change in its configurations by the feature of winding change over.
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It is to be noted that, the accelerating torque for acceleration is very high due to
compound configuration where as the winding change over enables the vehicle to
attain a relatively higher speed due to change over into shunt configuration.
A controller circuit will be needed to perform the switching action between the two
separate windings. The purpose of the controller circuit would be to sense the load
condition and depending on that, perform the switching action. At constant torque
region the motor should operate at in series connection. At the end of acceleration
period (as the required tractive effort will be much less compare to the starting
condition) the switching must be taken place to increase the speed of the motor as
well as the vehicle.
1.6.1
Due to winding change over a high final speed is attained with a drop in Load
Torque.
Saving in energy is increased as the kinetic energy of the vehicle will be used
to charge the battery through regenerative braking which implies as almost
30-40% of energy can be saved by the system.
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Chapter 1 describes the introduction of electric traction systems, types and different
features of it. General criteria of traction motor has been discussed from where it has
been found that, a motor with constant power range operation is certainly the best
choice for traction application. Finally a brief overview of the proposed method is
discussed and its applicability for electric traction is analyzed.
Chapter 2 describes the modeling, analysis and design of the compound motor that
will be used for traction purpose. Different characteristic equations have been
developed and simulated to predict the performance of the motor. The non-linear
model of the motor is developed and finally using the linearization technique, the
model is linearized and hence transfer function of the motor is obtained.
Chapter 3 describes in detail the dynamics of a traction load and hence the modeling
of the electric vehicle is done. From initial acceleration to final speed operation of the
vehicle had been calculated, simulated and presented along with all the necessary
mathematical calculation and analysis.
Chapter 4 discusses the modeling and Simulation of 2 quadrant Class C DC-DC
converter used for motor control. The novel integration of PWM voltage and
Hysteresis current controller is discussed in detail and simulated using LTSpice. All
the necessary controller circuit required for the operation of the vehicle along with
the winding change over controller, Speed Sensing, braking, speed controller and
others are designed, discussed and analyzed.
Chapter 5 provides the complete simulation of the entire electromechanical system
using Simulink. The response of the motor along with the vehicle is determined and
optimized. Finally, the obtained result is compared with the characteristics of a
conventional DC series motor to show the superiority and effectiveness of the
proposed method compare to any conventional vehicle traction system.
Chapter 6 concludes the overall thesis with some recommendations for future work.
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CHAPTER 2
MODELLING AND ANALYSIS OF COMPOUND
MOTOR
2.1 INTRODUCTION
DC drives are widely used in application requiring adjustable speed, good speed
regulation and frequent starting, braking and reversing. In case of traction application
DC series motors are dominating long since. But in this study it will be shown that, a
compound motor can be more efficient in traction purpose if it is modified and added
with some special features. Generally compound motors are of two typesCumulative and Differential compound motor where the Differential compound
motor is seldom used. For this particular thesis work where a compound motor is
chosen for vehicle propulsion system, it is obvious that, Cumulative compound motor
will be the best choice between these two types. Comparing to DC series motor a
compound motor can exhibit a more stable operation and also provides a finite and
safe no load speed (which is not possible in case of DC series motor as its no load
operation would produce a dangerously high speed due to very low value of field
flux) that depends on the strength of the shunt field. The slope of the Speed-Torque
characteristic depends upon the strength of the series field. Cumulative compound
motors are used in those applications where a dropping characteristic is similar to
that of a series motor and at the same time a no load speed is limited within a safe
value. The best application of such motor is loads with intermittent duty cycle where
load varies from almost no-load (constant speed operation of the vehicle at steady
state) to very heavy load (during starting). In these applications a fly wheel may be
mounted on the motor shaft for load equalization. Apart from load equalization, use
of compound motor permits the use of a motor with smaller size and less power
rating.
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