The Effects of Earthing Strategies On Rail Potentlal and Stray Currents in D.C. Transit Railways
The Effects of Earthing Strategies On Rail Potentlal and Stray Currents in D.C. Transit Railways
The Effects of Earthing Strategies On Rail Potentlal and Stray Currents in D.C. Transit Railways
J G Yu
1. INTRODUClrION
1 Running Rails
- voltages.
Stray current may cause or accelerate electrochemical
corrosion to metallic structures in the vicinity of the
transit system.
There are many rncasures that havc bccn adopted in the (C) Rail PGlenlial FGr a Direclly Connected Earlh or a Dlode Earth
attempt to mitigate the harmful effects of the two
problems.
Figure 2: The Effect of Earthing Arrangement
on Rail Potential
International Conference on Developments in Mass Transit Systems, 20 - 23 April 1998, Conference Publication No. 543 OlEE 1998
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304
Among them the choice of the overall earthing strategy the measured voltage exceeds a pre-set voltage-time
has a profound influence on the performance of the characteristic: the thyristor gates will be pulsed and the
system. contactor will be instructed to close. The appropriate
thyristor will conduct, depending on the polarity of the
Broadly the earthing strategy can be classified as follows: voltage across the thyristors. This will then be followed
by the action of the contactor. The contactor takes longer
0 Totally floating earth (with no intentional connection to switch ON than the thyristor due to its inherent and
between the rail and earth) intentionally built-in delays. This is desirable since the
Directly connected earth contactor rating is usually chosen to be less than the
Diodeearth thyristors.
0 Floating earth with RPCDs (RPCD earth)
Once the contactor is switched ON, the voltage across the
These are illustrated in Figure 1. Figure 2(a) shows a thyristors will collapse and the conducting thyristor will
feeding situation with one substation and one train only. It be switched OFF since the conduction current is
is assumed that the rail to earth resistance is transferred to the contactor.
homogeneous. Figure 2(b) shows the rail potential when
there is no intentional earth in the system, while Figure The contactor will remain ON until the current through
2(c) shows the rail potential profile when the rail is the RPCD falls below a pre-set current threshold gnJ its
connected to the substationearth. The rail to earth leakage ON time is longer than a pre-set minimum ON time. The
current density follows the rail potential profile. thyristor will not be pulsed for the next switch ON cycle
until the contactor is in the fully open position.
2. RAIL POTENTIAL CONTROL DEVICES
In some applications, the contactor does not have a
The RPCDs can be in many forms, while the modern required minimum ON time. The contactor will be
practices use thyristor controlled switches. switched OFF once the current through it falls below the
pre-set current threshold.
In the Ankara Rapid Transit System of Turkey, the device
is called Floating Negative Automatic Ground Switches 3. SIMULATION MODEL
(or FNAGS). In the Lantau & Airport Railways of Hong
Kong, it is called Over Voltage Protection Devices (or A computer simulation model has been developed to
OVPD). The two devices are similar in that both are simulate the rail potential and stray current for d.c. transit
thyristor controlled, bi-directional switches. However, the systems. The methodologies are explained in [3,4].
design and operating details differ in certain aspects. Briefly the input and output of the simulation are as
Figure 3 shows a schematic diagram of such a device. follows:
These devices have been installed in the respective
systems and tested for their functions in the integrated The basic data input starts with track profiles, including
systems. gradients, curvatures, speed limits, substatiodtrack
parallel hut locations, passenger station locations, train
characteristics, train headways, electrical power network
Negative Bus
paramctcrs including earthing data, etc. The results are
given for train performance including minimum voltages,
train speeds and journey times, electrical plant load
cycles, etc.
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305
Gross Leakage Charge The gross leakage charge Q, (in 4. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
Coulombs) is obtained by integrating the total slray
current itsc(t) against time for the simulated duration of A test line is used to simulate the effects of earthing
time (t,,tz)(in seconds). strategies on rail potential and stray currents. This is a
double track line with a route length of 18km and 16
passenger stations. See Figure 4 for the gradient profile of
the uproad track, simulated train speed, voltage and
current.
Usually the simulated duration varies for different studies, The line is powered by 7 traction substations at a nominal
depending on the train headways. To make a meaningful voltage of 15OOV d.c. The traction substations are located
comparison, Q, is normalised to one hour’s equivalent Qh near selected passenger stations. Each train consists in 6
(also in Coulombs): cars with induction motor drives and regenerative
braking. A headway of 120 seconds is used.
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Table 1 - Summary of Simulated Results
no ITS*‘
LOO
STOP-2 STOP4 STOPS ST0P-S STOP 10 STOP 12 ASTOP-14 STOP 18
STOP 1 STOP 3 STOP 5 STOP 7 STOP 9 STOP 1 1 STOP 13 STOP 15
tm
€a
Eo
Wh
43
20
00 10
I I
20 30
I
40 50
I 1 1 1 1
50 70 80 90 100
I 110
l 120
l 130
I 140
I 1
150 160 170
I 180 190
astance (h)
T W N CURRENT ANDVOLTAGE
M iA1
m
3511
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307
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308
Diode earths are inflexible since the diodes are not for cases H and K are shown in figures 10
controllable. Besides, diodes are unidirectional and 1 1. Therefore it is recommended that the
devices and are ineffective in reducing positive rail voltage settings should be made as high as is
potential. This makes it impossible to control the rail acceptable.
potential at locations other than at traction substations.
-
for Cases A. D & F Stop-2 for Cases H & I
Figure
for Cases D & F Stop-2 for Cases J & K
RPCD Earths A floating earth scheme with rail + Current Settings Within the RPCD
potential control devices is an effective scheme for schemes, a higher current setting means that
rail potential control. The RPCDs have the flexibility the RPCD already switched on can be
to make the system totally floating by setting the switched off sooner, therefore reducing the
voltage threshold high enough. (Case A is equivalent gross leakage charge. The disadvantage of
to 16 RPCD earths with voltage settings at 75V or the higher current setting is the heavier duty
higher. Case B is equivalent to 16 RPCD earths with on the contactor. This is compared between
voltage settings at 55V or higher.) The gross leakage cases H and I, shown in Figure 10. The
charge depends on the three settings chosen. results show that it is worthwhile to have a
heavier duty contactor in exchange of a
+ Voltage Settings Within the RPCD schemes, lower gross leakage charge.
a higher voltage setting reduces the
occurrences of the RPCD being switched on + Time Settings Within the RPCD schemes, a
and reduces the gross leakage charge. This shorter time setting means that the RPCD
is compared between cases G, H and K. Plots already switched on can be switched off
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309
0 Passenger Stations Since the RPCDs are bi- The simulation model has been verified against system
directional devices, they can be installed in locations integration test results from the Phase-I track of the
other than traction substations, such as passenger Ankara Rapid Transit System in Turkey, where rail
stations, where high rail potential usually occurs due potential control devices are used. Excellent agreement
to train acceleration. has been found between simulation and test results.
Case F represents two extra RPCDs at passenger The simulation results for a test track demonstrate that
stations that are located in the two longest feeding the floating earth scheme with rail potential control
sections. The results show that the rail potential is devices is the best choice.
reduced substantially compared with Case C. This
means that these two extra RPCDs are adequate for 6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
the system under normal operational conditions. They
may not be adequate under substation outage The author would like to thank the directors of Cegelec
conditions which are not studied here. For a passenger Projects Limited for permission to publish this paper. The
station located within a relatively short feeding author also acknowledges the assistance from his
section, a RPCD installation may become a necessity colleagues for the preparation of the paper, particularly
if one of the substations feeding the section is oLt of the comments by Mr K Loring, and the discussions on
service. the rail potential control devices with Messrs S Forde
and N Groves.
Compared with Case F, the results in Case H indizate 7. REFERENCES
that more installations of RPCDs increase both rail
potential and gross leakage charge. However, this can [ I J Yu,J.G. & Goodman,C.J. "Modelling of Railway
be avoided if the voltage settings at the added Potential Rise and Leakage Current in DC Supplied
installations are made higher, so that Case H becomes Railway Systems", IEE Colloquium Digest
equivalent to Case F, under normal feecling No. 19901129. Presented to IEE Colloquium on Stray
arrangement. The added installations can be made Current Effects o f DC Railways and Tramways.
active in emergency feeding conditions only. London, October 1990.
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