Clutch failure and recovery processes of rail wheels of AC electric locomotive with controlled excitation converters of the collector traction motors

Introduction. Collector traction motors of sequential excitation are widely used on DC and AC electric locomotives, which disadvantage is their increased tendency to slip. It is necessary to find a modern solution to the urgent task of improving coupling properties of electric locomotives. In this regard, the processes of disrupting and restoring the coupling of wheel pairs of an alternating current electric locomotive with controlled excitation converters of collector traction motors should be considered, providing smooth transitions to sequential and independent excitation characteristics, as well as the pos- sibility of smooth control of excitation currents and traction forces in these modes. The objective of the paper is to develop proposals to improve the coupling properties of electric locomotives.

Materials and methods. The authors propose a methodology for studying the clutch failure of an electric locomotive wheel pair. The processes of interaction of wheel pairs and rails when hitting an oil stain are considered, and the values of traction forces, adhesion forces, and the speed of wheel pair slippage are determined. The study of these processes was carried out using a mathematical model developed in the Matlab/Simulink software package.

Results. The results of processes study in case of clutch failure under one wheel of a wheel pair, as well as in case of clutch failure under both wheels of a wheel pair, showed that the clutch force of the first wheel pair becomes significantly lower than the thrust force of the engine rather than in case of clutch failure under one wheel. This causes a considerable increase in the relative sliding speed of the wheel from 6.9 % when the clutch is broken under one wheel to 9.5 % when the clutch is broken under both wheels. At the same time, the speed of the wheel rotation increases.

Discussion and conclusion. The results obtained in this article may be used for the development of traction force control systems at the adhesion limit and wheel pair slip control systems for AC freight electric locomotives with controlled exci- tation converters for commutator traction motors.

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