Abstract-- The paper presents a new high computational

efficiency model for the calculation of the waveform distortion

caused by the new high-speed locomotive E404P. The adjustable
speed drives of this locomotive use PWM-controlled converters
both to rectify the voltage of the AC supply system and to feed
AC motors. The proposed model is validated by comparing its
results with those of time domain simulations and measurements
performed on the locomotive at the Vehicle Test Room of CRIS
Ansaldo. The waveform distortion evaluated in different
operating conditions shows the good accuracy of the results
obtainable with the new model, also in presence of resonance
phenomena in the supply system impedance.

Index Terms-- Harmonic, Interharmonic, AC Traction
Systems, Test Room.
I. INTRODUCTION
HE Italian railways have adopted the high-speed system
supplied by 2x25 kV AC voltages at 50 Hz. The high-
speed locomotives for this system are equipped with PWM
modulated multistage converters that guarantee to operate at
nearly unitary power factor; moreover the harmonics and
interharmonics content of the absorbed current has a reduced
amplitude but interests a wide range of frequencies.
The harmonic and interharmonic pollution caused by the
onboard PWM converters has to be measured and analyzed to
avoid unexpected detrimental effects during the locomotive
operation. In fact, interaction with the power supply can cause
unacceptable levels of voltage and current distortion,
interference with communication and signaling systems.
Investigating the interaction among locomotive drives and
supply system represents one of the most addressed subjects
of harmonic studies on AC traction systems [1]-[3].
Theoretical studies conducted on the new 2x25kV Italian
high-speed railway system are reported in [4]; it has been
evidenced the need to carefully analyze resonance conditions
that could appear at frequencies in the range adopted for
signaling.
The authors of [5]-[8], proposed models of double stage

This work was supported by the Italian Ministry for University and Scientific
and Technologic Research, under the grant Cluster 12.

R. Carbone is with Universit degli Studi Mediterranea, Reggio Calabria,
Italy, rocarb@ing.unirc.it;
F. De Rosa, R. Langella, A. Sollazzo and A. Testa are with the Seconda
Universit degli Studi di Napoli, Dipartimento di Ingegneria
dellinformazione, Via Roma, 29 81031 - Aversa (CE) Italy, Ph. +39 081
5010239, Fax ++39 081 5037042, francesco.derosa@ieee.org,
roberto.langella@ieee.org, adolfo.sollazzo@unina2.it, alfredo.testa@ieee.org
conversion systems both with LCI current source inverter and
PWM voltage source inverter. Those models are based on the
switching functions approach [9]-[12] and use the Iterative
Harmonic and Interharmonic Analysis (IHIA) procedure [13],
[14]; moreover, the Parallel Compensation Technique [15] to
improve the convergence characteristics is adopted. It was
demonstrated: i) the accuracy of the iterative algorithm to take
into account the interaction between the two stages of the
conversion system, ii) the effectiveness of the approach of
modeling a converter with properly calculated switching
functions and, particularly, iii) the possibility of using this
kind of models performing Monte Carlo simulations for
probabilistic analyses of harmonic and interharmonic
distortion, because of the great reduction of computational
burden [8].
In this paper, the aforementioned approach is applied to
model a more complex system such as the E404P locomotive
conversion system.
In the following, a brief description of the E404P
locomotive and of the Vehicle Test Room is reported together
with their time domain models. Then, the new high
computational efficiency model is presented. Finally, some
numerical experiments are discussed also by comparing the
results with field measurements performed at the Vehicle Test
Room.
II. THE CONSIDERED SYSTEM
The simplified scheme of the system is shown in Fig. 1; it
depicts the Vehicle Test Room feeding the E404P locomotive,
whose characteristics are reported in Tab. I.

25 kV
E404P C
1
HV
=1200pF
SystemB
DAQ
S
C
ABB
C
1
C
1
LV
=220nF
SystemA
DAQ
v
p
i
m1
i
p
i
m2

Fig. 1. Vehicle Test Room: simplified scheme of the system
TABLE I. MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE E404P
LOCOMOTIVE OPERATING AT 25 KV 50 HZ
Max. effort at wheels [kW] 8800
Cont. Effort at wheels [kW] 6600
Max operating speed [km/h] 300
Peak tractive effort [kN] 340
Modeling Waveform Distortion Produced by
High Speed AC Locomotive Converters
Rosario Carbone, Francesco De Rosa, Student Member, IEEE, Roberto Langella, Member, IEEE,
Adolfo Sollazzo, and Alfredo Testa, Senior Member, IEEE
T
0-7803-7967-5/03/$17.00 2003 IEEE
Paper accepted for presentation at 2003 IEEE Bologna Power Tech Conference, June 23th-26th, Bologna, Italy

A. The E404P locomotive
The E404P can operate both in DC, at 3 kV and 1.5 kV,
and in AC, at 25 kV-50 Hz. The simplified drive scheme for
the AC configuration is shown in Fig. 2.
The locomotive is constituted by two subsystems (Half-Loco);
each of them contains two single-phase PWM-controlled
reversible converters that rectify the AC voltage of the
overhead line into 2.4 kV DC voltage. This voltage feeds the
three-phase inverters, so the AC motors, and a double-phase
step-down chopper used to supply the auxiliary services on
the train, such as the cooling system of power converters, the
air conditioning and so on.
The four single-phase AC/DC reversible rectifiers operate
individually at 500 Hz switching frequency. Their control
signals are phase-shifted with respect to each other so that the
harmonic spectrum of line currents is characterized by the side
bands of the odd multiples of the actual switching frequency
that is 2000 Hz for the entire loco and 1000 Hz for Half Loco
respectively.
Each three-phase DC/AC inverter is controlled by 120
phase shifted modulating signals and it is designed to operate
output frequency variation up to 133 Hz.
The step-down chopper is controlled with a classic PWM
technique. Each phase uses a 600 Hz carrier, and the two
signals are shifted of 180 each other, so the overall switching
frequency is 1200 Hz.

M
M
M
M
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
CHOPPER
Auxiliary
Services
CHOPPER
Auxiliary
Services
a)


C H O P P E R
A u x ilia r y
S e r v ic e s
=
~
~
b)
Fig. 2. E404P AC configuration scheme: a) Total Loco; b) Half Loco.
B. The Vehicle Test Room
The scheme of Fig. 1 is fully described in [16]. It is
worthwhile here evidencing the presence of the additional
capacitor bank, C
ABB
. The capacitor bank capacitance can be
changed, and it was designed to cause a parallel resonance at
given stated frequencies. In particular, the values of
capacitance were selected to provide a range of resonant
frequencies from 1000 Hz to 3000 Hz.
Fig. 3 evidences the equivalent impedance amplitude
versus frequency at the pantograph of the E404P, for different
values of C
ABB
; the plots were obtained by computer
simulation of the Vehicle Test Room electrical system and
were utilized for the C
ABB
capacitor bank design. The figure
also shows the natural parallel resonance (C
ABB
=0) of the
equivalent impedance of the supplying system at the Vehicle
Test Room that is located around 5000 Hz.
Frequency [Hz]
M
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e

[
k

]

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
0
1
2
3
0 F 0.093F 0.280F
0.432F

Fig. 3. Magnitude of the equivalent system impedance at the pantograph
versus the frequency for different values of C
ABB
.
Fig. 4 shows the equivalent circuit of the Vehicle Test
Room used for both time-domain and frequency-domain
models described in the following sections.
CABB
Supply System
Equivalent Impedance
Supplying
Voltage

Fig. 4. Vehicle Test Room equivalent circuit.
III. TIME DOMAIN CONVERSION SYSTEM MODEL
The simplified schemes in Figs 1 and 2 have been modeled
by using the Power System Blockset (PSB) in MATLAB
environment. Fig. 5 shows the scheme of the time-domain
simulator. Note that also the rectifier and the inverter control
systems have been considered to reproduce the different
operating conditions.

+v1
-v1
+v21
-v21
+v22
-v22
+v23
-v23
+v24
-v24
Transformer
A B C
AC Motor
A B C
AC Motor
A B C
AC Motor
A B C
AC Motor
pulses
Rectifier 2
Control System
pulses
Rectifier 1
Control System
pulses
Motor 3-4
Control System
pulses
Motor 1-2
Control System
+
-
pulses
A
B
C
Inverter 2
+
-
pulses
A
B
C
Inverter 1
Equivalent System
Impedance
C ABB
A1
B1
A2
B2
V+
V-
AC/DC Converters
and
DC-Link1
A1
B1
A2
B2
V+
V-
AC/DC Converters
and
DC-Link
25kVAC
a)
Auxiliary Services Chopper
Auxiliary Services Chopper
pulses
pulses


+v1
-v1
+v21
-v21
+v22
-v22
Transformer
A B C
AC Motor
A B C
AC Motor
pulses
Rectifier
Control System
pulses
Motor
Control System
+
-
pulses
A
B
C
Inverter
Equivalent System
Impedance
C ABB
A1
B1
A2
B2
V+
V-
AC/DC Converters
and
DC-Link
25kVAC
b)
Auxiliary Services Chopper
pulses

Fig. 5. Scheme of the PSB time domain simulator:
a) Total Loco; b) Half Loco.

The rectifier control has to guarantee the desired DC
component of the output voltage, and the proper phase
relation between current and voltage in the AC side to obtain a
unitary power factor. This is obtained by means of a proper
feedback control over the output voltage: the error signal is
processed to obtain an input voltage reference signal used as
modulating signal for the PWM technique that operates the
rectifier.
The inverter is operated by a PWM technique, whose
modulating signals are obtained by means of an indirect-field-
oriented control over the motors to obtain the desired rotor
speed.


Calculation of Transformer secondary winding voltages, starting from the
fixed Pantograph Voltage (outer procedure)
4
Q
s

M
o
d
e
l

Calculation of inverter output voltages, starting from the DC-Link
voltage (first time the nominal DC value) and by means of the inverter
switching functions
Calculation of inverter output currents by means of the output voltages
and the load parameters
I
n
v
e
r
t
e
r

M
o
d
e
l

Calculation of Auxiliary Services Chopper output voltages, starting
from the DC-Link voltage (first time the nominal DC value) and by
means of the Chopper switching functions
Calculation of Auxiliary Services Chopper output currents by means of
the output voltages and the load parameters
C
h
o
p
p
e
r

M
o
d
e
l

Calculation of 4Qs input voltages starting, from last calculated DC-Link
voltage (first time the nominal DC value) and by means of the rectifier
switching functions
Calculation of 4Qs input currents starting, from the Transformer
secondary winding voltages and 4Qs input voltages
Calculation of 4Qs DC-side currents starting, from 4Qs input currents and
4Qs switching functions
Calculation of the inverter DC-side currents, by means of output currents
and the inverter switching functions
Calculation of the Auxiliary Services Chopper current, by means of
output currents and the Chopper switching functions
Start

YES
NO
Calculation of the Locomotive absorbed current, starting from all of the
4Qs input currents
End
Calculation of DC-Link current starting from inverter input current, the
Chopper input current and 4Qs output currents and updating of DC-Link
voltage
Comparison between the last and previous iteration DC-Link voltage
Is the variation below the
fixed tolerance?


Fig. 6. Flow-chart of the inner iterative procedure
IV. HIGH COMPUTATIONAL EFFICIENCY CONVERSION SYSTEM
MODEL
The model uses two nested iterative procedures and is able
to take into account the parallel resonance phenomena of the
supplying system equivalent impedance.
The inner procedure models the interaction between the two
conversion stages of the locomotive converter and evaluates
the absorbed current starting from fixed pantograph voltage.
The outer procedure takes into account the interaction
between the locomotive converter and the supplying system
(i.e. the Vehicle Test Room) and, starting from the absorbed
current, evaluates the pantograph voltage.
A. The Inner Iterative Procedure
The inner procedure models each Half-Loco (Fig. 2 b)) by
means of the algorithm described in the following.
A general idea of the inner iterative procedure can be given
by means of the flow chart of Fig. 6. The inner procedure
needs the pantograph voltage as input parameter. It depends
on the supplying system equivalent impedance and on the
locomotive absorbed current and it is provided by the outer
procedure.
The switching functions of single-phase 4Qs rectifiers,
auxiliary services chopper and of the three-phase inverter are
simply obtained from the knowledge of the PWM modulation
technique parameters adopted for each kind of converter.
The rectifiers and the inverters are operated by a bipolar PWM
technique, while the auxiliary services choppers by an
unipolar PWM technique.
The calculation of the 4Qs input currents (step 2 of the 4Qs
Model) can be better understood with the help of Fig. 7.
Transformer Equivalent
Impedance
4Qs Input
Voltage
Secondary winding
voltage
TRANFORMER EQUIVALENT 4QS RECTIFIER
4Qs Input Current

Fig. 7. Calculation of the 4Qs input currents
The inverter model operates as explained in details in [6].
Fig. 8 a) shows the electrical scheme of the chopper, while
Fig. 8 b) explains step 1 of its model, that is the calculation of
output voltages, once modeled the Auxiliary Services by
means of their power consumption. After having evaluated the
output currents (step 2 of the chopper model), the calculation
of the chopper absorbed current is performed (see Fig. 8 c)).
Auxiliary
Services
S1 S2
DC-Link
Voltage
i1
i2
a)
RAS
i1
i2
b)
DC-Link
Voltage
iS1 iS2
iChopper
c)
v1
v2
iChopper

Fig. 8. Auxiliary Services Chopper:
a) electrical scheme, b) step1 of the model, c) step 3 of the model

Fig. 9 illustrates the updating of the DC-link voltage. The
presence of a parallel resonance in the DC-link equivalent

impedance causes convergence problems of the iterative
procedure for the DC-link voltage updating: so, it is necessary
to adopt a convergence compensation technique. In particular,
the Parallel Compensation Technique (PCT) proposed in [15]
has been utilized with effectiveness. This compensation
technique is briefly recalled in the next subsection C.

4Qs out put
cur r en t s
In ver t er i n put
cur r en t
+
Ch opper i n put
cur r en t DC-l i n k
Vol t a ge

Fig. 9. Updating of DC-link voltage
B. The Outer Iterative Procedure
The supplying system is modeled with its Thvenin
equivalent and, then, the pantograph voltage can be updated
by injecting the locomotive absorbed current calculated by
means of the inner iterative procedure as shown in Fig. 10.


Thvenin
Equivalent Impedance
Locomotive
absorbed
Current
Open-Circuit
Voltage
Supply System Thvenin Equivalent Locomotive Model
Pantograph
Volatge

Fig. 10. Model of the outer iterative procedure

The iterative procedure for the voltage updating is simply
described by the flow-chart of Fig. 11.
Also in this case, convergence problems can arise because
of the presence of resonance phenomena in the supplying
system equivalent impedance and a convergence
compensation technique is recommended. Again, the PCT
results to be effective.


INNER PROCEDURE
YES
NO
Start
Evaluation of the Open Circuit Pantograph Voltage
Evaluation of the Locomotive Absorbed Current, starting from the last
calculated Pantograph Voltage
Injection of Locomotive Absorbed Current in the Supply System to
update the Pantograph Voltage
Evaluation of the variation of the last calculated Pantograph Voltage
respect to the one of the previous iteration
Is the variation below
the fixed tolerance?
End

Fig. 11. Flow-chart of the outer iterative procedure
C. The Convergence (Parallel Compensation Technique)
Both the outer and the inner procedure are iterative and
they could not converge. The main reason of the lack of
convergence is the too high sensitivity of the two subsystem
electrical quantities to their variations from an iteration to the
other. The two subsystems are the supplying system and the
locomotive conversion system for the outer procedure and the
DC-side and the AC supply-side of the half conversion system
for the inner procedure.
Concerning the outer procedure, the locomotive model could
be too much sensitive to the amplitude variation of some
frequency components of the pantograph voltage; the current
components absorbed by the locomotive can vary themselves
a lot during the iterative procedure due to those voltage
variations. Now, if the equivalent impedance of Fig. 10
presents a parallel resonance in the frequency range in which
the aforementioned current components are located, the
current injection in the left side of the circuit in Fig. 10 can
amplify the corresponding components of the pantograph
voltage, so creating a condition for a divergent loop.
On both the outer and the inner procedure, in order to avoid
the aforementioned phenomenon or to accelerate the
procedure convergence, the Parallel Compensation Technique
can be utilized to significantly decrease the electrical
quantities sensitivity by introducing proper compensating
impedances. In practice, for compensating the outer
procedure, the physical system is modified by the addition of a
pair of parallel compensation impedances characterized by
equal magnitude and opposite sign. The combination of these
impedances amounts to an infinite value impedance, and
ensures that the physical system under study results unaffected
by this addition.
The positive impedance, +Z, is included in the supply system
Thvenin equivalent, while the negative impedance, -Z,
originates a new modified locomotive model (Fig. 12). In [15]
it was demonstrated that, by a proper choice of Z, the
compensation operated by the impedances +Z and -Z
improves convergence characteristics and avoids the lack of
convergence, typically caused by impedance resonances.
Moreover, Z has not necessary to be physical and can be
properly set in the frequency domain for each component.
Similar considerations apply for the compensation of the inner
iterative procedure.


Thvenin
Equivalent Impedance
Locomotive
absorbed
Current
Open-Circuit
Voltage
Supply System Thvenin Equivalent Locomotive Model
Pantograph
Volatge
+Z -Z
Fig. 12. Outer procedure model and Parallel Compensation Technique
V. NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS
The new model accuracy has been tested by means of
several numerical experiments. The references are the results
obtained by means of time domain simulations and the
measurements performed at the Vehicle Test Room.

For the sake of brevity, only one working condition of the
locomotive is reported referring to the Half Loco sub-system.
Finally, field measurements previously operated are also
shown and briefly discussed.
Table II shows the system parameters at the simulated
working condition.
TABLE II. MAIN PARAMETERS OF FIXED WORKING CONDITION.

Fig. 13 shows the locomotive absorbed current spectra versus
frequency, both for time domain simulator (Fig. 13 a)) and for
the frequency domain model (Fig. 13 b)).
The good agreement between the two spectra, in particular for
the main components, is evident.


0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Fundamental Component 42.02 A
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

[
A
]
Frequency [Hz]
a)


0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Fundamental Component 40.2 A
Frequency [Hz]
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

[
A
]
b)

Fig. 13. Locomotive absorbed current spectrum: a) PSB, b) Model.

Fig. 14 depicts the pantograph voltage spectra versus
frequency obtained by the time domain simulator (a)) and by
the frequency domain model (b)); the effectiveness of the
model is confirmed. Note how small amplitude current
components at frequency of about 2050 Hz have a significant
effect on the pantograph voltage, because of the presence of a
supply equivalent impedance parallel resonance at that
frequencies.

3

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Fundamental Component 25839 V
Frequency [Hz]
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

[
V
]
a)


0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Fundamental Component 25786 V
Frequency [Hz]
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

[
V
]
b)

Fig. 14. Pantograph voltage spectrum: a) PSB, b) Model.

Tables III and IV report the results of time domain and
frequency domain numerical experiments, respectively, for
locomotive absorbed current and pantograph voltage.

TABLE III: COMPARISON BETWEEN PSB AND MODEL RESULTS FOR
LOCOMOTIVE ABSORBED CURRENT

Frequency
[Hz]
PSB
[A]
Model
[A]
Error
[%]
50 42.02 40.18 -4.38
650 0.55 0.56 2.98
750 2.52 2.48 -2.02
850 3.24 3.18 -2.04
950 2.50 2.44 -2.31
1050 2.24 2.20 -2.02
1150 2.35 2.30 -2.17
1250 1.47 1.44 -1.74
1350 0.31 0.31 -0.36
1550 0.63 0.62 -1.92
1650 0.47 0.45 -2.22
1750 0.40 0.39 -2.35
1950 0.09 0.08 -3.61
2050 0.10 0.09 -4.66
2150 0.21 0.19 -3.52
2250 0.51 0.49 -3.16
2350 0.85 0.83 -2.52
2450 0.69 0.68 -2.22
2550 0.23 0.22 -3.16
SUPPLY SYSTEM
Supplying Voltage [V] 25850
CABB Capacitance [F] 0.28
AC MOTOR
Speed [km/h] 75
Torque [kNm] 4.7
Absorbed Power [kW] 470
AUXILIARY SERVICES CHOPPER
Absorbed Power [kW] 410
Switching frequency [Hz] 600

TABLE IV: COMPARISON BETWEEN PSB AND MODEL RESULTS FOR
PANTOGRAPH VOLTAGE
Frequency
[Hz]
PSB
[V]
Model
[V]
Error
[%]
50 25839.00 25789.00 -0.20
650 42.37 43.63 2.97
750 233.51 228.79 -2.02
850 355.33 348.06 -2.04
950 322.98 348.06 -2.31
1050 340.88 333.99 -2.02
1150 421.15 411.99 -2.17
1250 311.25 305.83 -1.74
1350 78.00 77.72 -0.36
1550 242.02 237.36 -1.92
1650 229.84 224.72 -2.22
1750 270.10 263.72 -2.36
1950 151.09 145.59 -3.64
2050 287.22 274.46 -4.44
2150 381.80 368.33 -3.53
2250 559.57 541.93 -3.15
2350 662.98 646.29 -2.52
2450 417.73 408.47 -2.22
2550 113.36 109.79 -3.15

It is worthwhile noting that, for the working condition here
reported, the interharmonic distortion level is negligible due to
the separation effect, between the two conversion stages, of
the strong DC-Link capacitor.
Fig. 15 reports the locomotive absorbed current waveforms
obtained by the model and by the field measurements. It is
evident that, even if the agreement is not perfect, the model is
able to reproduce with good approximation the behavior of
this complex conversion system. That is why the new model is
designed to take into account the influences of the supply
system resonances on the converter behavior.


0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
80
Model
Field Measurement
Time [s]
L
o
c
o
m
o
t
i
v
e

A
b
s
o
r
b
e
d

C
u
r
r
e
n
t

[
A
]


Fig. 15. Locomotive absorbed current waveform: thin line is the model result,
thick line is the field measurements.

In order to demonstrate the importance of the utilization of
comprehensive methods in presence of resonances, the
simulation by means of PSB has been repeated ignoring the
presence of the capacitances in the equivalent of Fig. 4, that
means ignoring the influence of the supply system resonance
on the absorbed current, I, and on the resulting voltage, V.
Furthermore, the current I has been injected in the actual
supply impedance, Za, which includes the capacitances, that
means to take into account the resonance in a simplified way.
Table V shows the components around 2050 Hz of the
spectrum of the locomotive absorbed current I and of both the
resulting pantograph voltages V and V, together with the
errors evaluated assuming as a reference the results of PSB in
Tabs. III and IV. It is evident that the errors introduced,
ignoring the resonance in the supply system impedance, are
remarkable for I and V, and, particularly for V. Moreover,
the errors of I and V are characterized by a sign depending
on the nature of the reactance of the actual supply system
impedance.

TABLE V: COMPONENTS OF CURRENT I AND VOLTAGE V OBTAINED BY PSB
IGNORING RESONANCE, AND OF VOLTAGE V OBTAINED BY INJECTING I IN
THE ACTUAL IMPEDANCE
Freq.
[Hz]
Current
I [A]
Error
eI [%]
Voltage
V [V]
Error
eV [%]
Voltage
V [V]
Error
eV [%]
1750 0.48 19.14 89.74 -66.77 321.78 19.13
1850 0.07 29.28 14.23 -74.44 71.99 29.27
1950 0.13 48.99 26.71 -82.32 225.06 48.96
2050 0.13 39.87 29.34 -89.82 401.56 39.81
2150 0.12 -43.37 26.84 -92.97 216.21 -43.37
2250 0.31 -39.32 73.80 -86.81 339.59 -39.31
2350 0.59 -30.40 148.56 -77.59 461.46 -30.40
2450 0.52 -24.86 136.00 -67.44 313.90 -24.85
2550 0.18 -21.30 49.08 -56.70 89.22 -21.29
VI. COMPUTATIONAL EFFICIENCY
A brief discussion about computational efficiency of the
new model is conducted. A synthetic index [7] can be defined
to quantify the efficiency improvement:

n time calculatio model
n time calculatio domain time
= Speed-Up .

Fig. 16 shows the Speed-Up curve of the model with respect
to the time domain simulator versus Fourier fundamental
frequency [17], [18]. The Speed-Up increases as the Fourier
frequency increase, due to the great sensibility of the
frequency domain model, in terms of calculation time, to the
variation of the Fourier fundamental frequency. Instead, the
time domain simulator is quite unaffected by the variation of
the Fourier frequency, and at the same time is strongly
penalized by the unavoidable transient stage, affecting the
beginning of the simulation.


0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
S
p
e
e
d
-
U
p

Fourier frequency [Hz]

Fig. 16. Speed-Up curve of the model referred to time domain simulator,
versus Fourier Frequency.

VII. CONCLUSIONS
The paper has presented a new high computational
efficiency model for the calculation of the waveform
distortion caused by the new high-speed locomotive E404P.
The proposed model has been validated by comparing its
results with those of time domain simulations and field
measurements performed on the locomotive at the Vehicle
Test Room of CRIS Ansaldo. The waveform distortion
evaluated in different operating conditions has shown the
good accuracy of the results obtainable with the new model,
also in presence of strong resonances.
The main outcomes of the paper are:
- the resonance phenomena in the supply system have to be
taken into account in a comprehensive way in order to
obtain realistic estimations of the electrical quantities;
- the overall accuracy of the model is good and it is able to
reproduce the behavior of the real system;
- the reduction in the computational burden makes the
model very attractive inside Monte Carlo simulations for
probabilistic analyses of harmonic and interharmonic
distortion.
VIII. REFERENCES
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[2] Holtz, H. J. Klein, "The Propagation of Harmonic Currents Generated
by Inverter-Fed Locomotives in the Distributed Overhead Supply
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[3] R. E. Morrison, J. C. W. Corcoran, "Specification of an Overvoltage
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[5] R. Carbone, F. De Rosa, R. Langella, A. Testa, "A New Approach to
Model AC/DC/AC Conversion Systems," IEEE/PES Summer Meeting,
July 2001, Vancouver, Canada.
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of AC/DC/AC Conversion Systems with PWM Inverter," IEEE/PES
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[7] F. De Rosa, R. Langella, A. Sollazzo, A. Testa, "Waveform Distortion
Caused by High Power Adjustable Speed Drives Part I: High
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[10] L. Hu and R. Yacamini, "Calculation of Harmonics and Interharmonics
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[11] M. Sakui, H. Fujita, and M. Shioya, "A Method for Calculating
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1989, pp.434-440.
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Calculate the Harmonic Distortion in HVDC Systems Operating on an
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1997, pp.973-980.
[13] C. D. Callaghan and J. Arrillaga, "Convergence criteria for Iterative
Harmonic Analysis and its application to static converters,"
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Budapest (Hungary), October, 4-6, 1990.
[14] R. Carbone, M. Fantauzzi, F. Gagliardi, and A. Testa, "Some
Considerations on the Iterative Harmonic Analysis Convergence,"
International Conference on Harmonics in Power Systems (ICHPS),
Atlanta (USA), 23-25 September 1992. IEEE Transactions on Power
Delivery, vol. PD-8, N. 2, April 1993.
[15] R. Carbone, F. Gagliardi, and A. Testa, "A Parallel Compensation
Technique to Improve the Iterative Harmonic Analysis Convergence,"
International Conference on Harmonics in Power Systems (ICHPS),
Bologna, 21-23 Sept. 1994.
[16] P. Caramia, G. Carpinelli, P. Varilone, D. Gallo, R. Langella, A. Testa,
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IX. BIOGRAPHIES
Rosario Carbone was born in Taurianova, Italy, on
December 12, 1965. He received his degree in
Electrical Engineering from the University of
Calabria, Italy, in 1990 and the PhD degree in
Electrical Engineering from the University of Naples
in 1995. His current research interests concern
harmonic and interharmonic distortion on
multiconverter power system.

Francesco De Rosa was born in Capua, Italy on June
30, 1974. He received the degree in Electronic
Engineering from the Second University of Naples, in
2000. He is working towards the Ph.D. in Electrical
Energy Conversion at the Second University of
Naples, Aversa, Italy. Dr. De Rosa is a student
member of IEEE Power Engineering Society.

Roberto Langella was born in Naples, Italy, on
March 20, 1972. He received the degree in Electrical
Engineering from the University of Naples, in 1996,
and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Energy Conversion
at the Second University of Naples, in 2000. Dr.
Langella is currently assistant professor in Electrical
Power Systems at Second University of Naples,
Aversa, Italy. Dr. Langella is a member of IEEE
Power Engineering Society.

Adolfo Sollazzo was born in Capua, Italy on August
19, 1975. He received the degree in Electronic
Engineering from the Second University of Naples, in
2001. He is working towards the Ph.D. degree in
Electrical Energy Conversion at the Second
University of Naples, Aversa, Italy.

Alfredo Testa was born in Naples, Italy, on March
10, 1950. He received the degree in Electrical
Engineering from the University of Naples, in 1975.
He is a Professor in Electrical Power Systems at the
Second University of Naples, Aversa, Italy. He is
engaged in researches on electrical power systems
reliability and harmonic analysis. Dr. Testa is a Senior
member of IEEE Power Engineering Society and of
AEI (the Italian Institute of Electrical Engineers).