Design Method Using Thermal Analysis in the Development of Electric Braking Resistor for Railway Carriage

Abstract

For a train’s safe operation, a braking system is necessary to control its velocity easily and fast. A braking system is classified into mechanical braking, which transforms kinetic energy into heat, and electric braking, which transforms power energy into heat. A braking resistor is used to suppress the increased voltage and absorb the regenerative power. Regenerative braking system dissipates the regenerative energy generated by electric braking in the load resistor and suppresses the excess voltage of the power electronics system. In this paper, a method to design the electric braking resistor of a roof-type electric braking system used for railway carriage is proposed by the use of thermal analysis. Through thermal analysis, the shape and arrangement of an element, which is the main part of a braking resistor is designed. The verification of the designed values is conducted by experiments on the developed electric braking resistor. The experimental result for the maximum temperature of the element is 603.8oC, which deviates 1.3% from the designed value.