Minimizing Wheel Slip in Railway Locomotives with Coupled Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors

TL;DR

This paper proposes a control strategy for coupled permanent magnet synchronous motors in railway locomotives, utilizing back-emf signals to synchronize motors and automatically prevent wheel slip during operation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel control approach connecting multiple motors in a cyclic chain to promote synchronized states that enhance wheel slip prevention.

Findings

Synchronization of motors is achieved through back-emf based control.

The collective synchronized state effectively terminates wheel slipping episodes.

The method improves locomotive traction stability.

Abstract

In this work I consider control strategies of permanent magnet synchronous motors in which the back-emf signal from the motor is used to achieve commutation of the six step driving circuit. I show that if the strategy is modified to connect multiple motors in a cyclic chain, then a collective synchronized state is favoured. The stability of this state can be exploited in the bogies of a railway locomotive to automatically terminate wheel slipping episodes.