Getting to the Heart of Propulsion Failures

This article describes how high ambient temperatures have led to premature failure of traction components on Indian Railways' (IR) latest high-power electric locomotives. The performance of electronic components in IR high-power electric locomotives has fallen below expectations, particularly in comparison with the European countries from which they originated. With IR now committed to a significant expansion of its three-phase traction fleet, the authors have been undertaking extensive studies to get to the bottom of the problem. In European countries using a similar traction package, electronic card failures are typically observed at intervals of 9 or 10 years. But under Indian conditions, cards were failing prematurely after 5 or 6 years.