3. 3
Introduction
Network
Heavy Rail
• 4 main lines
• 2 branch lines
• ~130 km total length
• 40 km 25kV AC overhead
Light Rail
• 1 line
• ~15 km length
• 600V DC overhead
7. 7
Introduction
3000/3100 Class DEMU
• 30 dual cab railcars
• 40 single cab railcars
• Diesel engine/alternator
power supply
• 2 of 4 axles powered
• Dynamic, disc and track
brakes
• 1980s traction
converters / control
• Tare mass 48t (3000cl),
47t (3100cl)
8. 8
Introduction
4000 Class EMU
• 22 (currently 14) 3 car
units
• 25kV AC power supply
• 8 of 12 axles powered
• Dynamic and disc brakes
• Modern traction
converters / control
• Tare mass 47t (DM),
46t (T)
10. 10
Introduction
4000 Class EMU
• Top speed of 110 km/h
•Maximum deceleration
rate of 1.25m/s2 when in
emergency
• Maximum deceleration
rate in full service is 1.12
m/s2
•Equipped with sanding
system
•Flange lubrication system
is being installed on the
first two trains
11. 11
Introduction
4000 Class EMU - Sanding
• Top speed of 110 km/h
•Maximum deceleration
rate of 1.25m/s2 when in
emergency
• Maximum deceleration
rate in full service is 1.12
m/s2
•Equipped with sanding
system
•Flange lubrication system
is being installed on the
first two trains
12. 12
Introduction
4000 Class EMU
• Top speed of 110 km/h
•Maximum deceleration
rate of 1.25m/s2 when in
emergency
• Maximum deceleration
rate in full service is 1.12
m/s2
•Equipped with sanding
system
•Flange lubrication system
is being installed on the
first two trains
41. 41
Adelaide EMU Train
Rail Network Integration
Prepared by
Mohamed Awadalla and Peter Lindqvist
DPTI Rolling Stock Engineering
Editor's Notes
Equipped with sanding equipment to develop a better adhesion characteristics under slippery condition. The way the system will work is when the train is starting to experience a slide via the anti slip system. The brake control unit will apply dynamic braking for the first 4 seconds and if there is no reduction in the trains speed, the friction braking will start and the sand unit will disperse the sand. The sand dispersed is good for the first 6 axles. The rate of disperse of sand required per km is 2g/m.
The lubrication system was installed to increase the life span of the wheels by reducing the wear on the flanges.
Equipped with sanding equipment to develop a better adhesion characteristics under slippery condition. The way the system will work is when the train is starting to experience a slide via the anti slip system. The brake control unit will apply dynamic braking for the first 4 seconds and if there is no reduction in the trains speed, the friction braking will start and the sand unit will disperse the sand. The sand dispersed is good for the first 6 axles. The rate of disperse of sand required per km is 2g/m.
The lubrication system was installed to increase the life span of the wheels by reducing the wear on the flanges.
Equipped with sanding equipment to develop a better adhesion characteristics under slippery condition. The way the system will work is when the train is starting to experience a slide via the anti slip system. The brake control unit will apply dynamic braking for the first 4 seconds and if there is no reduction in the trains speed, the friction braking will start and the sand unit will disperse the sand. The sand dispersed is good for the first 6 axles. The rate of disperse of sand required per km is 2g/m.
The lubrication system was installed to increase the life span of the wheels by reducing the wear on the flanges.
The advantages of procuring the new trains is to eliminate the exhaust fumes and noise resulting from the diesel engines. Changing the aesthetics to a more streamlined trains. Achieve higher capacity trains. The crush load capacity is 570 passengers for a 3 car set, compared to 3000/3100 that can utilize space for 106/113.
The only disadvantages the loss of the overhead power. The way around it is to introduce towing and the challenges accompanying it, this will be discussed further with Peter.
The design of the cab is important for drivers visual , crash protection.
The advantages of procuring the new trains is to eliminate the exhaust fumes and noise resulting from the diesel engines. Changing the aesthetics to a more streamlined trains. Achieve higher capacity trains. The crush load capacity is 570 passengers for a 3 car set, compared to 3000/3100 that can utilize space for 106/113.
The only disadvantages the loss of the overhead power. The way around it is to introduce towing and the challenges accompanying it, this will be discussed further with Peter.
The design of the cab is important for drivers visual , crash protection.
Service braking; the braking system will comprise of an electro-dynamic brake and friction brake. The two systems will work together, however, more percentage of the braking is done via the electro-dynamic braking to reduce the wear on the pads and discs. However, when a fault is present on the electro-dynamic braking, the current friction braking setup is more than capable to stop the train in the nominated distance under crush load.
Parking brake; this is a spring applied brake and is always on when the train is stabled automatically. The parking brake will rele3ase when there is enough air in the system to hold the train and the pantograph is up. The parking brake will be able to hold the train up on gradients higher than 2.6% and under wet weather conditions .
Brake Control; The brake system has the capability to compensate for the passenger loading, failure of either the service brake or emergency brake will not cause failure to the other. If the train management system fails to detect the brake release signal, the brakes will come on automatically.
Service braking; the braking system will comprise of an electro-dynamic brake and friction brake. The two systems will work together, however, more percentage of the braking is done via the electro-dynamic braking to reduce the wear on the pads and discs. However, when a fault is present on the electro-dynamic braking, the current friction braking setup is more than capable to stop the train in the nominated distance under crush load.
Parking brake; this is a spring applied brake and is always on when the train is stabled automatically. The parking brake will rele3ase when there is enough air in the system to hold the train and the pantograph is up. The parking brake will be able to hold the train up on gradients higher than 2.6% and under wet weather conditions .
Brake Control; The brake system has the capability to compensate for the passenger loading, failure of either the service brake or emergency brake will not cause failure to the other. If the train management system fails to detect the brake release signal, the brakes will come on automatically.
Service braking; the braking system will comprise of an electro-dynamic brake and friction brake. The two systems will work together, however, more percentage of the braking is done via the electro-dynamic braking to reduce the wear on the pads and discs. However, when a fault is present on the electro-dynamic braking, the current friction braking setup is more than capable to stop the train in the nominated distance under crush load.
Parking brake; this is a spring applied brake and is always on when the train is stabled automatically. The parking brake will rele3ase when there is enough air in the system to hold the train and the pantograph is up. The parking brake will be able to hold the train up on gradients higher than 2.6% and under wet weather conditions .
Brake Control; The brake system has the capability to compensate for the passenger loading, failure of either the service brake or emergency brake will not cause failure to the other. If the train management system fails to detect the brake release signal, the brakes will come on automatically.
The pantograph is designed to collect 25kv and supply it to the converters. The pantograph will automatically drop when it detects damage or losses contact with the overhead.
Aux systems that are dependent on the batteries will remain on when a loss of overhead power is detected for 120 mins or 90 mins when the high beams is left on. The train control system will shut down the train to preserve some battery power for a restart.
Air supply. There is one air supply module and one aux supply module. The main air supply can charge the system in 16 mins and it powers the main equipment from brakes, suspension, horn and coupler). The auxiliary air supply will provide air to the main circuit breaker and panto when the main air supply is too low and will be fed via the battery power.
The TCMS (train control management system) is equipped on every train where it monitors the trains modules and provides the driver with up to date info from all three train units, it will also raise alarms to faults.
PEI and PIS, are both systems for passenger comfort from destination information, station alerts and communication link between passengers and the driver in incidents or help request from people with disabilities.
The train is equipped with 20 cameras, 4 in each saloon, 6 on the outside body and one in each drivers cab.
HVAC system installed on these trains have a superior cooling application that is capable of the saloon in temperatures between 20-24 at 24 and can operate at full capacity with no issues till 53.
This is a level one system and will not stop the train from having a SPAD signal passed at danger. It will provide a control stopping distance when the driver didn’t obey the signals to stop or reduce speed.
this allows the current signaling system to be kept and integrate the ETCS balise to the signaling system creating an interlocking mechanism. The on board computer keeps monitoring the speed via the dedicated tachometers and dopplers to calculate the maximum speed and braking curve from this data. The train must travel over these track side balises to obtain the next movement authority.
There are two levels:
Level 0 installed on the gawler line and outer harbour line. This will protect against overspeed and rollbacks.
Level 1 installed on the seaford and belair line. This will protect against overspeed, exceeding safe stopping distance, buffer stop collision, rollback and exceeding the set speed profile, this all depends on the set movement authority grated by the EVC.
Trains equipped with ATP will be able to proceed to non ATP territory and vice versa, AWS wil be suppressed accordingly.
These are called balise groups, one is passive which contains data like (line gradient, distance on track and to next signal, speed profile. The active balise is interlocked with the signal and is controlled from the command centre to set the speed profile and this is the balise that will provide the movement authority.
my involvement with the specification, design and delivery of the new EMU trains has been fairly limited, and that stage of their life has been covered well by others. So I’ll be talking about my personal experiences, which have so far been focused on the EMUs in their natural habitat; that is the maintenance and operation stage of their life.
preventative maintenance and some corrective maintenance every 60 days at Dry Creek (see pic)
DC 5 roads x 3 car length (3 pit/overhead, 1 flat/hoist, 1 flat), safety lockout, shore supply, heavy lifting apparatus, heating / cooling, no 25kV
minor corrective maintenance and stabling/preparation at Seaford
SF 2 roads x 3 car length (1 pit / overhead, 1 flat), safety lockout interfaced with 25kV in shed, shore supply, no hoist or heavy lifting
trains need to be lifted for some maintenance, for example removing bogies as shown here
the hoist lifts the train by the wheels, then body claws support while bogie lowered
hoist at Dry Creek can lift 3 cars simultaneously; no need for time consuming uncoupling of unit
- Support rails had to be extended to suit axle spacing (also needed to work after reverse curve modification and for existing rolling stock)
- Material had to be removed from claws to fit under body
Commuter trains are subjected to a lot of muddy feet and other things, so they need to be cleaned quite frequently, both inside and out.
Minor external clean (daily) in Seaford yard,
Major internal clean (30 days) at Dry Creek
Purpose built cleaning platform with safe lockout, shore supply, access underneath
currently just used for major clean, but long term goal to use other side for minor cleaning (electrification, shunting to overcome)
Also convenient for minor corrective maintenance and some tasks that require access at platform level
External clean (30 days) at Dry Creek, towed through by diesel railcar
Diesels are cleaned more frequently (eg. a few times per month) and electric trains would benefit from similar install light wash at Seaford?
- there are a few scenarios that involve towing; electric rescuing electric eg. mechanical failure, electric rescuing diesel eg. mechanical failure, diesel rescuing electric eg. overhead power failure, but the most common scenario at the moment is routine towing of electric trains by diesels, because there are no overhead wires running to the maintenance facility at Dry Creek
towing can be with or without control of the towed vehicle, depending on the scenario
when a diesel is coupled to an electric, as shown here, pneumatic control of emergency brakes is possible but there’s no electrical control of service brakes on the towed vehicle, so the towing vehicle does all of the service braking. A speed restriction is necessary (about 40km/h) and the coupling/uncoupling process is time consuming.
for routine towing to Dry Creek for maintenance, it’s more convenient to put a second driver in the towed cab to release the brakes using the controls and travel at a more normal speed
One measure of reliability performance is the mean distance between Missed Trips (either Terminated or Cancelled); we track this quarterly
Because this measure is just the fleet kilometres divided by the number of missed trips, the fleet kilometres are a driving factor while they’re low in these early days of operation. As the kilometres have built up, the reliability appears to have improved, however it’s really been quite good since the beginning. There have only been a few missed trips:
- March: Doors not closing
- April: Wheel diameter error: would not move
- July: Transformer
- I’ll just go through a few specific problems that have affected reliability; this isn’t an exhaustive list, but is just a summary of a few interesting challenges that we’ve faced.
Firstly, the passenger doors; these are plug doors, which means that they pop out and then open. This action requires a fairly complicated mechanical system that is driven by electric motors as shown in the picture.
Because of the complexity, setup is quite tricky. In particular, the obstacle detection feature was unreliable early on, but this was overcome by a review of the setup procedure.
We also had a quality issue with the door leaf hanger. A bolt fell out, jammed the door and because the trains are designed to fail in a safe state, traction was blocked so that nobody could fall out. This is now controlled better by cycling doors in the factory to find anything that is loose.
- One other issue with the doors has been the automatic close feature, which closes the doors after a certain time when the train is at a station. The doors closing announcement isn’t made, and we had a few cases where passengers were struck by doors (obstacle detection worked). This feature is currently disabled to protect people, but the long term plan is to make the doors beep prior to closing.
The HVAC unit shown here has been another source for reliability issues
This is largest HVAC unit (by dimension) and there are, 3 x 2 independent units per train, total ~57kW cooling
Similar driver controlled, single units provide ~5kW cooling for each cab
- Supply air centrifugal fan bearings noisy quality issue identified, fans being replaced as they fail
- Emergency fan cover noise stiffener modification
The last reliability issue I’ll talk about is the loss of output from Traction/Brake Controller, the big lever shown here on the driver’s desk. This is obviously a critical control component and as such it fails safe and the train won’t move.
The problem has been failure of the Pulse Width Modulation encoder that converts the analogue output of the lever position to a digital signal to control the motors and brakes.
- A modification to cable terminations and shielding has improved reliability, and the OEM is also working on an improved design.
moving on from reliability, another topic of interest has been ride quality;
this had been measured previously on existing rolling with a fairly low cost (~$10k) system, which uses off the shelf hardware that is suitable for the environment (fanless pc, solid state hdd, good quality sensors and a UPS)
it measures ride quality according to AS2670.4, wheel impacts, dynamic stability according to AS7509.3, and pantograph impacts
data acquisition and analysis uses the Matlab signal processing and data acquisition toolboxes, with the free cport toolbox for serial interface with UPS and GPS using toolboxes reduces programming
reporting uses free Matlab tools mksqlite and kml toolbox to interface with sqlite database and Google Earth storing results in a database is really useful for statistical analysis and looking at long term trends
installed on a 3000 class railcar in service, using vehicle’s 24V power supply doesn’t require resources for special runs, but system must operate unsupervised and this required more programming effort than anything else in the system
so far only short term tests on EMUs, but plan to install permanently for ongoing monitoring
firstly to human comfort; the table at the top gives some guidelines for uncomfortable acceleration levels
the lower table shows the lateral acceleration that we measured on electric trains; one with very low kilometres, and another one that had been used for a few months
both did the same trip, twice UP and DOWN the Seaford line
- magnitude was higher with wear
- number of occurrences was higher with wear
The placemarks show the locations were lateral accelerations were measured, which are generally the same for both units
colours indicate the levels
Australian Standard 7509 looks at ride quality in terms of safety and asset deterioration
Section 3 outlines a hunting test, ie. cyclical lateral instability as shown in the picture with acceptance criteria of < 0.35g
the test recommends bogie measurements for vehicles with soft lateral suspension; that’s what our trains have, so accelerometers were mounted on the bogie and axlebox
And here are the results:
placemarks indicate the locations where the acceptance criteria was exceeded for more than 5 seconds; same locations as those identified for human comfort
Time history is roughly sinusoidal as per previous slide, so the train clearly failed the hunting test at 42 locations, the worst of which was almost double the acceptable level
The problem is worse at the higher speeds that we can now do with the electric trains, so they’re more affected than the diesels
Although the train failed the hunting test, the problem is really with the wheel-rail interface
I’ve passed on detailed results like this to our track engineers, to help them investigate the track at locations where hunting occurs
Generally there isn’t a specific feature that triggers the hunting, but the track engineers have identified some rail profiles that don’t match the wheel profile well; this leads to poor lateral stability
Possible solutions are to mill/grind rail, change the wheel profile or slow down our fast new trains; a decision will be made soon
moving on from the wheel rail interface, another important interface for an electric train is the pantograph/contact wire interface.
this video shows why this interface is important, with someone else’s pantograph
Pantograph monitoring system is based on the onboard monitor that I’ve been discussing, but with some key differences:
Risk of electrocuting vehicle occupants is eliminated by using batteries for power supply and wireless data transmission (data stored and processed on laptop in cab). NiMH batteries give 12 hrs runtime, 12MB buffer on chassis allows 120s timeout on WiFi connection (required through CBD where connectivity is poor due to interference)
Careful sensor selection and cable shielding to avoid electrical interference
Additional protection to avoid equipment damage (Transient Voltage Suppression TVS diodes, Fuses, Over temperature)
Initially used on trams @600V, now on 25kV EMUs. Workshop tests were performed to see if anything blew up, then first mainline test at night when there is less operational impact if something goes wrong.
Now investigating a more permanent system, ie. powered by energy harvesting and with mobile phone alerts
- As with ride quality, Google Earth file generated by free KML toolbox for Matlab
- Placemarks indicate locations of pantograph acceleration > 5g; maintenance personnel can then physically check the overhead wires
Battery power supply means that continuous installation isn’t possible (ie. 1-2 runs only), so no clusters of placemarks to indicate consistent readings Important to click placemark and review time trace to check validity of measurement
in the long term, I hope to develop an energy harvesting system that can monitor this interface continuously without zapping me
