Overview
ABSTRACT
Although electric traction was created in 1880, it was not developed until 1970 with the help of power electronics. Indeed, power electronics has allowed for significant progress by offering the possibility to link all forms of electric energy in a continuous and two-directional way, with an excellent yield. Thus, the use of silicon semiconductors has significantly improved the easiness of control, decreased the amount of energy used and increased the compactness/lightness of machines. This article presents the progress of technological evolutions in the field of electric traction, from the first machines up to the use of electronic switches. Via the description of new materials such as silicon carbide, this article also deals with the current trends of the domain and improvements to come.
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Marc DEBRUYNE : HEI engineer (Hautes Études Industrielles) - Master Expert in Traction Systems – Alstom Transport
INTRODUCTION
It is generally accepted that electric traction originated around 1880, when Werner von Siemens first presented a machine powered by an electric motor at the Berlin World's Fair. By the dawn of the twentieth century, all types of electric motor were known, whether direct current, synchronous or asynchronous. What these machines lacked, however, was the flexibility of adjustment, which power electronics was to provide when it made its debut with thyristors at the end of the 1960s.
The foundation of power electronics is essentially based on the concept of the static switch, made possible by silicon, a material with astonishing properties, capable of transforming from an insulator to a conductor by means of a simple electrical command.
By exploring the field of electric traction from its origins through all the technological stages up to the advent of electronic switches, we can appreciate the inventive genius of railway engineers and measure the gradual but constant increase in the performance and compactness of traction equipment with each evolution of power semiconductors, diodes, thyristors, GTOs and IGBTs.
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Contribution of power electronics to electric traction
Three technological revolutions
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