24

MODELLING AND SIMULATION OF SUPPLY CURRENT INTERFERENCE IN TRACTION

SYSTEMSARISING FROM MULTI-LEVEL CONVERTERS IN HIGH-POWER LOCOMOTIVE
DRIVES

P.C. Colesl, M. Fraechiaz, R.J. Hill', P. Pozzobonz, G. Sciuttoz

1 University of Bath, UK
2 Universita' degli Studi di Genova, Italy

A railway traction system simulator intended for the study of electrical interference produced by
converter-fed W o n drives is described. The simulationmodel comprises a neutral-pont-clamped inverter
drive, a 3 kV DC 12-pulserectifier substationand a section of traction line. Time and frequency domain
simulation r a ~ l tds c m ~ ~ t rthe
a tinfluence
~ of the system DC cumnt and nonlinear traction line impedance
on the production ofhigher frequency harmonics in the catenary power supply circuit.

&words. Railway traction, multi-level inverters, electromagneticinterference.

INTRODUCTION accurate, frequency dependent, traction line representation are

Knowledge of the magnitude of traction current harmonics produced
in electric railway networks is important because of the danger of
interference with communications and safety signalling circuits.
These harmonics circulate in the traction power feed line and arise
from two sources: rectifier substafionsand traction converters. The
frequency and amplitude of the rectifier substation harmonics are
determined by the plse number of the rectifier and the overlap on the
converter diodes. The converter harmonics arise from the drive
converter structure and the power device modulation strategy.
Modem traction drives use voltage source inverters (VSIs) with
induction traction motors, and the neutral point clamped (NPC)
inverter is the favoured implementation for railways electrified at 3
kV DC. The NPC inverter also has an advantage that it produces an
inherently lower supply cumnt interference spectrum compared with
that of the traditional inverter [1J for a given duty cycle.
In general, simulation models are neccJsary to identify the conditions
which encourage the production of harmonic currents in any system.
The main tasks in railway interference studies are to model the
production of harmonics and to identify the mutual coupling
conditions that exist between the traction line and parallel safety
signalling cable systems. Because signalling systems use specific
frequencies in the power and audio range, the amplitude of
harmonics produced by the traction power system at the same
frequencies must be controlled. Figure I shows an example of the
rail current harmonic limits specified by the FS. Particularly
stringent limits apply at the track signalling frequencies of 50 and I78
Hz.
The simulation of a complete practical traction network is difficult
due to the interaction between the various converter systems
wnnccted together and the frequency dependency of the traction line.
Moreover, meaningful interference measurements are difficult to
make in a systematic way on an operating railway so it is diNkult to
know in practice which operational and loading factors most affect
the harmonic spectrum [3]. To accurately simulate the effect of
harmonics on a signalling system, detailed converter models and an
F w r e 1: FS specified limits of rail current as a
fiction of frequency
required 141. This is in contrast with previously reported modelling
performed with simplified converter models and lineariscd traction
line data to study resonance conditions in overhead catenary systems
151.
This paper presents a simulation model of a complete NPC VSI-IM
traction drive supplied by a 12-pulse 3kV DC rectifier substation
through an overhead catenary line traction network. The model is
intended as a tool for the investigation of the effects of different
modulation strategies in VSI traction inverters on the harmonic
content of the supply current in practical traction networks. Models
of the NPC inverter, ESS rectifier and traction line are described, and
characteristic frequency spectra are shown for each converter
assuming an ideal supply or load. Reference system simulation
results are produced using 50 Hz traction line impedance data. and
the effect of nonlineartraction line impedanceis considered.
NEUTRAL POINT CLAMPED INVERTER
In contmt to the conventional VSI, a multi-level inverter StrUcNre
[ 6 ] allows the output phase voltage to assume more than two
different values. In the general case, an n-phase-level inverter is fed
from a single DC voltage source across which is connected a
capacitor divider with n series capacitors. The capacitorsguarantee a
low source impedance and act as energy sources to achieve the
correct voltage balance between the power switches. Because of the
continual charge and dixharge of the capacitors, multi-level inverters
require more complex control prrangements than single level
inverters: an optimised modulation technique described in reference
[7], for example, has the objective of minimising the voltage
difference between the n capacitors whilst also reducing the power
losses and power device ratings..
Although theoretically any number of voltage levels are possible by
adjusting the power circuit topology, the difficulties of achieving
stable control and the increase in circuit complexitywith mote voltage
levels mean that only multi-level inverters with a low number of
phase voltage levels arc viable. For traction, a zero voltage state is
necessary and the NPC inverter with three possible phase voltages
and five possible line voltages represents the only viable
implementation for railways electrified at 3 kV. This is because of
the present voltage limitation of 4.5 kV in available GTO switching
devices, which, with the usual factor-of-three derating, results in a
limit of 1.5 kV (in the NPC inverter, half the DC voltage appears
a c m s each device). The other major advantage of the NPC inverter
for rail traction is the high quality AC motor phase voltage
waveform. This is obtainable using a low switching frequency of
200 Hz since the virtual inverter switching frequency is four times
the actual frequency. There is thus a concomitant reduction in the DC
supply current ripple and motor torque pulsation [I].
Figure 2 shows a NPC inverter used for tail traction. To maintain
the switch voltage level at V d n , diodes DCij arehsetted in each
branch. These clamp the off-switches to the capacitive voltage
divider filter. To obtain the correct voltages at the load connection
point, the power switches must be ON or OFF according to a fixed
pattern [ I , 61. This implies complementary status in several switch
pairs. When the inverter branch supplies load current from the

0 1993 The European Power Electronics Association

Authorized licensed use limited to: Glyndwr University. Downloaded on September 13,2020 at 12:43:40 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 25

RECTIFIER SUBSTATION

The electric supplysubstation(ESS)modelled is rrprrsentative of the

standard transformer - rectifier substation used on FS. The
transformer has a star primary winding and both delta and star
secondary windings. The secondary windings supply sepsrate diode
bridge rectifiers which an C O M C C in ~parallel,
~~ without limiting
reactance, to form a 12-pulse rectifier. The main substation
chara*eristica IVC given in Table 1.

1- 3 k V D C . .p
Rated primary voltage 150 kV
Rated secondmy voltage 2.71 kV
Rated AC side power 5.75 M W
Rated DC side power 5.4 M w
Figurr 2: Neutral point clamped inverter strucI~re Ratcdm-hdDc voltage 3.65 kV
Transformer d c voltage 11%
Rtsdanocratio: 0.13
intermediate capacitors, the capacitor divider will become unbalanced
in the absence of a special control strategy. One possible
arrangement is to modulate the switches to obtain zero average
capacitor current. This exploits the fact that the correct
phase-to-phase inverter voltages may be synthesised by several The ESS model WO developed from a dynamic representation
different switch configurations, 80 the optimum configuration will intended for short circuit transient analysis of DC traction systems
maintain the appropriate voltage divider balance. An alternative 181. For the present simulation, a linear network model was
strategy is to incorporate a discharging resistor, controlled by a sufliaent, as the most important feature required was the overlap
fuaher switch, in parallel with each capacitor. behaviour on cumnt commutation. The rectifier diodes were
modelled as perfeet switches and all phases were assumed to be in
The NPC inverter shown in Figure 2 has been modelled using the balance.
circuit simulation program EMTP [I]. The simulation objective was
to study the effect of source cumnt harmonics, so it was sufficient to Figure 4 shows the time and frequency domain waveforms for a
represent the induction motor by a fimt-order load with time constant mean substation DC output level of 415 A. A resistive load W M
e& to that of the machine. Figure 3 shows typical rcsults for the applied in order to produce the worst-case DC-side harmonic
source " n t in the time and frequency domains. with the invelter performance. The IZ-pulscwaveform shows the expected 600 Hz
operatingat a modulation frequency of 50 Hz and a carrier fresuenfy fuadamenlal with the full m n p of harmonica It should be noted that
of 750 Hz,and supplied by M ideal voltage source delivering 4 I5 A. the amplitude of each of these harmonics is in most c a m greater than
Even though the harmonics me attenuated by the NPC inverter filter the NPC inverter harmonics at the same frequencies as shown in
of 6 mH and 10 mF, the spectrum clearly demonstrates the enhanced Figure 3.
performance of the NPC invettcr comparedwith a conventionalVSI.

lml
... ..

-t i

Figure 3: Supply c u m " and harmonic spcclrwn of NPC F w r e 4: Supply currcnt and harmonic specmm of
inverter fed from idcal voltage sourcc rectifier substation with ideal resistive load

Authorized licensed use limited to: Glyndwr University. Downloaded on September 13,2020 at 12:43:40 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 26
RAIL TRACK MODEL
A railway traction line may be modelled as a number of mutually
coupled parallel conductors. The lines correspond to each running
rail, power cables such ascatenary, auxiliary feeders & earth wires,
and parallel signalling & communications wires. A model for a
single catenary electrified ttackwith no additional feeders is shown in
Figure 5a Deriving the impedancesand admittances for an e-
multi-wire line is difiicult because of the proximity of the conducting
earth and the frequency and current depmdency of the equivalent
distributed line components. Methods for defining the line phase
impedance and admittance matrices may be found in reference 191.
The resulting coupled line model may be utilised either in terms of
phaw vatiables for time domain simulation [IO] or as modal variables
for frequency domain simulation.
Although the complete coupled line model is necessary for a
thorough study of interference mupling between electric traction
power and signalling systems, a simplified modcl is suficient for the
present study of the factors affecting harmonic generation. A
two-wire transmission line representing the catenary system with
curent return through the parallel mbination of the running rails
shown in Figure 5b has thus been modelled. The equivalent loop
feeding impedance may be calculatedknowingthe self impedances of
the catenary and each running rail and the earth-return mutual
impedance between the catenary and each tunning rail. The feeding
inductance and resistance have been evaluated using models from
reference [ 9 ] and are shown in Figure 5c. The feeding admittance
hasaconstant capacitanceof 11.4nFhandzero~~d~~tanee1111.
If transmission line effects are insignificant, any length of tfaction
line may be simulated by a single T-section model based on the per
unit length equivalent circuit of Figure 5b. The worst CBM is at the
highest frequency of interest (6 kHz), where the wavelength was
evaluated at 42.1 km. The average substation separation distance on
a 3 kV DC line for doublcend feeding on FS is 20 km,so simulation
of the full single-end feeding length of 10 km was indeed acccptable
with a single T-section equivalent circuit.
Figure 5c shows that the variation of line impedance over the
I
2-WIRE MODEL
1 II- /
Figure 5: catenary - track modcl with impedance characteristics:
a, Three-wirecoupled line. b, Equivalent single-phaseline.
c, Variation of line mistanceand inductance with frequency
Authorized licensed use limited to: Glyndwr University. Downloaded on September 13,2020 at 12:43:40 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
frequency range of interest is significant, with the line mistance
increasing by a factor of seven and the inductance decreasing by a
quarter over the frequency range 30 Hz to 6 kHz. The line time
constant thus reduces from 10 ms at 50 Hz to 1 ms at 6 kHz.
SYSTEM SIMULATION
The simulationobjectives were to study the production of harmonics
along the traction line. The NPC inverter, ESS rectifier and traaion
line models were implemented using the package EMTP. Line
lengths of 1 , 2 , 5 and 10 km were eonsidered, with the NPC invnter
operating with constant modulation. The DC supply current,
dependingon the ESS rectifier load, varied between 300 and 700 A.
Harmonic amplitudes at ESS rectifier and NPC inverter
terminals
Figure 6 shows a simulation record of the DC supply current along a
10 km track section, calculated at the ESS rectifier and NPC inverter
terminals. The traction line impedance is linear and is equal to the 50
Hz values in Figure 5c. Although the differences in the time domain
traces appear insignificant, the frequency spectrum docs show
variationsin harmonic amplitude between the two locations at higher
frequencies, with a larger amplitude at the NPC inverter terminal.
These higher frequency harmonics contain contributions from both
the ESS rectifier and the NPC invertcr. The greater amplitude of the
higher frcqucncy harmonics at the NPC inverter terminals may be the
result of a local traction line monant d i t i o n [SI.
Effect of track length on harmonic amplitudes
Simulations were performed with the track length equal to 1,2,5 and
10 km. The frequency spectra, shown in F w r e 7 using reference
(50 Hz) traction line impedance data, indicates there is more
attenuation for longer f e c d i i distances. As shown later, this is due
to the reduced system load owing to the increased traction line
impedance and the change in ESS rectifier load time eonstant due to
the relative imporlance of the traction line and NPC inverter loads.
-
554
0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02
Time [I]
-VSI Dc current, .-FSS Dc current
Frequency [Hz]
F
v 6 Simulated current at each end of 10 km track
using 50 Hz traction line impedance data
 27
Figure 7: Simulated harmonic spcctra at NPC inveacr terminals for track lengths of 1 , 2 , 5 and IO Ian
Effect o f DC current on harmonic amplitudes
Fwre 8 shows simulation results made to BYKSS the effect of the DC
current on the harmonic amplitudes. Results for selected harmonics
arc shown on a 2 km track section, again using reference (50 Hz)
traction line impcdanoc data.
The 600 Hz and 3kHz harmonic amplitudes are insensitive to
changes in DC current magnitude. These particular harmonics
originate mainly from the ESS rectifier. This indicates that the
harmonic amplitude variations shown in Figure 7 at thosc frequencies
arc determined largely by the nature of the traction line impedance,
rather than hy the magnitude of the converter I d DC current. This
is consistent with the fact that a rectifier substation produces higher
peak-to-peak oscillations and hence higher harmonic amplitudes
when the time constant of its equivalent load is raised. This occurs
when the load current has low ripple, which is INC at high frequency
due to the incrcaud reactance. In the prexnt situation, the rectifier
load is the combination of the traction line impedance and NPC
inverter input impedance and as the total reactance rises with
10‘ , lie time c0-t
600 Hz
9 the traction line impedance set at the high frequency values. The
VSI DC current [A]
Figure 8: Effect of cmvettm DC load NtEllt
on selected NPC inVMer harmonics:
Authorized licensed use limited to: Glyndwr University. Downloaded on September 13,2020 at 12:43:40 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
increasing frcqucncy, the amplitude of high order harmonics will also
inaease.
The curvc8 at 50 Hz and 300 Hz reflect the influence of the NPC
inverter harmonics. With a large load current, the magnitude of the
NF’C inverter filter capacitor chargddischarge cycle voltage
excursions will increase. The harmonic amplitudes will thus also
increase, which will make them more sensitive to DC current
magnibldevariation compared with variatiws in the h&er frequency
ESS-generated harmonics.
Effect of nonlinear traction line impedance
The results in Figure 8 were obtained using reference (50 Hz)
tlaaion line impedance data The practical impedancedata of Figure
5c shows that the traction line time constant decreases from about 10
ms at low frequencics to I ms at high frequencies. If the DC am”
is maintained constant, simulations using the frequency-dependent
traction line impedance data should produce higher harmonic
amplitudes than those with the reference tradionline impedance data.
The differences in harmonic amplitude between the two sets of
impedance data would thus be due only to the derreasc in the traction
with inerrase of frequency.
To test this hypothesis, successive simulations were performed with
track length wan limited to I km to restrict the variation in DC current
to less than about 10%.
The results are presented in Table 2. It is confirmed that the
harmonics obtained with frequency-dependent traction line
impedance data are generally greater in magnitude than thoseobrained
with the reference data. Care, however, must be taken in comparing
the two sets of simulation results, since the circuit simulation model
does not allow the DC current to circulate independently of the
harmonics. Because the production of harmonics is linked to a
number of interrelated factors such an the value of the DC current, it
is dimcult to pmvide a cpntitative comparison between the harmonic
amplitudes. However, it does appear that the tractaion line time
constant is an important additional factor in determining the harmonic
amplitudes in the system.
 28

In the simulator described in this paper, parameters and conditions

may bc individually varied, in order to find the worst-case conditions
1 k I l l . D C C U ~ for emission of electromagnetic interference. The presented
simulation results show that two faclon arc important in determining
the harmonic content of the converter harmonics: the average DC
Frequency Harmonic amplitude (A) current level, and the frtquency-dependent traction line impedance.
Reference case Frequency-depmdent case P m t work is directed at alternative ways of representing frequency
ESS NFT ESS NPC dependent W o n line impedance in time domain simulation. Thew
include synthesising a network of linear, discrete components and
50 0.4733 0.4675 0.4733 0.4675 frquency domain modelling.
100 0.7730 0.7774 0.7980 0.8053
150 0.0547 0.0463 0.0597 0.0477
200 0.0365 0.0374 0.0409 0.0388 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
250 0.0600 0.0466 0.0742 0.0471
300 0.0431 0.0271 0.0232 0.0305
350 0.0220 0.0175 0.0139 0.0214 The authors am grateful for a British CounciVMURST collaborative
400 0.1991 0.1981 0.1981 0.2060 research grant. Dr Hill would also like to acknowledge the UK
450 0.0205 0.0282 0.0337 0.0279 SERC for the provision of research grant GWW18920.
500 0.0482 0.0476 0.0535 0.0488
550 0.0569 0.0607 0.0763 0.0612
600 2.9647 2.9700 3.0992 3.0971
700 0.6899 0.6947 0.7116 0.7103 REFERENCES
1200 0.4628 0.4690 0.4917 0.4934
1800 0.1971 0.2042 0.2018 0.2019
2400 0.1418 0.1485 0.1386 0.1442 1. Carpita, M., Fracchia, M., Pozzobon, P. and Tenconi, S.M.,
3000 0.0772 0.0820 0.8173 0.0847 1992, 92, Washington, 2, 79-91.
3600 0.0474 0.0507 0.0514 0.0548 2. Casco!i?.%z:yk and Obedi, M., 1991, Proc. EPE 91,
4200 0.0331 0.0361 0.0338 0.0361 Firenzc, I, 135-140.
4800 0.0275 0.0298 0.0292 0.0317 3. Ccsario, P., Dapelo, M., Romano, P., Savio, S. and Sciutto,
5400 0.0207 0.0226 0.0225 0.0243 G., 1991, ‘b. Zurich.
6000 0.0160 0.0177 0.0164 0.0188 4. Hill, R.J.%C?z ;?.?$9?kc. 1993 It IEEYASME
Railroad Con&, Pittsburgh, 77-86.
5. Holtz, 1. and Klein, H A . , 1989, IEEE Trans. Power
Electron.,4, (2), 168-174.
6. Carpita, M.,Tenconi, S. and Fracchia, M., 199I , Proc. EPE 91,
Firenze, I, 90-94.
CONCLUSIONS 7. F m h i a , M.,,Ghiara, T., Marchesoni, M. and Mazmcchelli, M.,
1992, PESC 92 Conf. Rec., Toledo, 1205-1213.
8. Mazzucchelli, M.,Pozzobon, P. and Sciuto, G., 1992,
The practical mcthod of awessingthe e f f m of harmonics produced GOMPRAIL 92,Washington DC,I , 15-25.
from conveder-fed electric traction is to undertake a series of site 9. Hill, R.J. and Carpenter, D.C., 1993, E E Trans. Veh.
tests to monitor the harmonic emissions under various operating BSIUQL, 42, (2),17 PP.
lO.Hi11, RJ., Yu S.L. and Dunn N.J., 1989, JEEE Trans. Veh.
conditions. The results from a large number of tests are then
eolle*ed together and the worat-e&K d t i o m identifled. This is a
laborious and imprrcisc proeedun due to the dimculty of identifying
w, 38, (4), 237-246.
<l.Hill, R.J. and Carpenter, D.C., 1992, Proc. COMPRAIL 92,
the electrical system loads and the lack of control over railway Washington, 2,403-416.
operational mditiona.

Authorized licensed use limited to: Glyndwr University. Downloaded on September 13,2020 at 12:43:40 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.