Development of Permanent Magnet (PM) Alternator

for SG LHB Coaches

Abstract
Permanent Magnet (PM) based motors are being used in various applications worldwide but seldom
tried fo rolling stock. Smaller size of PM motors offers a distinct advantage over other type of
motors/alternators available. This special advantage of PM motors has been utilized by developing
belt driven PM based alternator for LHB coaches. LHB coaches are having FIAT bogies with disc
brakes which has very less envelop for fitment of any alternator. Provision of belt driven alternator in
FIAT bogie opens up new era of self-generating LHB coaches for Indian Railways.

Introduction
Indian Railways, world largest Rail network, mostly uses V-belt driven alternator to convert
mechanical energy of train into electrical energy which is then used to feed all the
passenger comfort equipment like air conditioning, light, fan, mobile/laptop charging points
etc. LHB coaches, presently being built at Rail Coach Factory, Kapoorthala, are fitted with
FIAT bogies which are having disc brakes. Because of disc brakes occupying space on axle,
very less envelop is available to put any other equipment like conventional alternator.
The alternators used on conventional ICF built coaches are brushless with no winding on
rotors. Field as well as stator windings are placed on stator and rotor is made up of simple
toothed stamping. Rotor when rotated with V-belts offers variable resistance to magnetic
field and hence offers variable magnetic field to stator winding and generating power. This
design, although very rugged, has two inherent drawbacks i.e. larger size and poor
efficiency. ICF bogies are used with tread breaks and hence has envelop just sufficient to
accommodate 25KW conventional alternator.
LHB coaches, in spite of having higher speed potential and more safe, are limited to
EOG/HOG version of train services because no solution was available to make these coaches
self-generating.

A Ray of Hope
PM machines inherent advantage of smaller size and weight over conventions electrical
machines offered a ray of hope for development of suitable alternator for FIAT bogie which
can fit in the envelop available without relocating anything.
PM machines are also having much better efficiency than their conventional counterpart
apart from giving advantages of low volume and weight. Study to explore the possibility of
developing 30KW PM alternator was taken up by RDSO and RCF design team along with the
industry.

Is Everything So Rosy
PM machines are having many advantages but it has one major issue of not having any
control on generation. As field inside the machine is generated from fixed permanent
magnets, there is no field control available to designer. It means that voltage and frequency
of alternator output rises as the speed of alternator rise. For any equipment to be used in

coaches, it is mandatory to keep a check on developed voltage at higher speeds for

passenger safety. This imposes two mutually exclusive requirements for a successful PM
alternator in rolling stock :
1) Generation of full power at speeds as low as possible
2) Restrict the high voltage generation to a safe limit at higher speed
A major challenge for a successful PM alternator development was to have a reasonably
good trade-off between these two requirements which can also deliver the required power
in the reasonably lower speed and safely works at maximum permissible speed of 160Kmph.

Building Blocks
Self-generation conventional system on a coach consists of following major equipmenta) Alternator It is a brushless alternator driven by V-belts from axle to converts
mechanical power to electrical power. (Presently 2 no. of 25KW on each coach)
b) Rectifier cum regulating unit (RRU) Rectify and control the alternating voltage
coming out from alternator at predefined DC voltage ( 129 volts ) which is
suitable for battery charging and equipment running. (Presently 2 no. of 25KW
on each coach)
c) Pre-cooling unit cum battery charger It takes 3-phase input from power mains
and gives controlled and stable DC output for battery charging and running air
conditioning equipment when train is standing. . (Presently 1 no. of 28KW on
each coach)
d) Battery Suitable capacity battery to store power when train is running and feed
the same when train is standing. (Presently 1 bank of 1100Ah on each coach)
For PM alternator project, scheme with two separate independent electrical circuit is
conceived which eliminates the possibility of failure of complete generation system due to
failure of any one component. Major components of the system are as below:
a) PM Alternator 25KW Alternator driven by V-belts from axle to converts
mechanical power to electrical power. (2 no. on each coach).
b) Controller Unit This unit converts output of the alternator and gives stable DC
output which is suitable for battery charging and equipment running. This unit
also has provision to feed external 3-phase supply from mains for precooling and
battery charging. (2 no. on each coach)
c) Battery For 2 independent electrical circuits, 2 banks of 650Ah VRLA batteries
are used on one coach.
A) PM Alternator
Permanent Magnet (PM) based alternator has very strong permanent magnets on rotor
which generates rotating field. Construction of rotor can be done in many ways but for
this project two type of rotor construction was used. One with disc type rotor having
magnet embedded on the disc and other is drum type rotor having magnet bars
embedded (similar to squirrel cage induction motor).

Disc Type PM Rotor

Conventional PM Rotor

Stator of alternator is having 3 phase windings similar to typical induction motor. Based
on the rotor construction, stator is also designed in such a way that stator windings cut
the magnetic field and generate requisite voltage.

Stator for disc type rotor

Stator for conventional PM rotor

To limit the voltage at alternator terminal, Rotor magnets, stator windings and pulley
ratio (Axle/alternator) are designed in such a way that phase to phase voltage generated
at alternator terminals without load and corresponding to 160Kmph of train speed is not
more than 480 Volts.
These two different designs have two different dimensions. Disc type rotor more
diameter where as conventional bar type rotor requires more length. Based on the space
available in FIAT bogie, disc type rotor is made with both side pulley of 5 grooves each
whereas bar type rotor was made with one side pulley of 8 groves.
As there is no way by which PM alternators can be turned off while rotor is rotating, all
the three terminals of alternators are fitted with HRC fuses to protect against cable short
circuit or over loading.

PM Alternator with disc type rotor and both side pulley

PM Alternator with bar type rotor and one side pulley

B) Controller for PM Alternator
Controller for PM Alternator is a typical VVVF converter which takes output of the
alternator as input (Variable Voltage Variable Frequency depending on the speed of
alternator) and gives stable DC at 129 Volts. Schematic of the controller is as below:
3 Phase input from
Alternator/Mains
Stable DC
Output

Full Bridge Controlled

Rectification
Full Bridge
Rectification

High Frequency
inverter
High Frequency
Transformer

C) Power Schematic

RMPU-1
Controller
Unit for PM
Alternator

650Ah Battery Bank

Switch
Board
Cabinet

25KVA
Inverter

Other
Coach
Loads
Controller
Unit for PM
Alternator

650Ah Battery Bank

25KVA
Inverter
RMPU-2

What about Overvoltage

Special care has been taken for over voltage protections in the controller of PM Alternator.
The controller has 4 stages over voltage protection
1) Shutting down IGBTs on detection of Overvoltage at DC link
2) Shutting Down IGBTs on detection of Overvoltage at DC output
3) Opening of contactors (at the input of controller) on sensing of overvoltage at DC
output
4) Opening of contactors on sensing of overvoltage in the power panel
Apart from these provision of HRC fuses at the terminal of alternator also protects any
overload/overcurrent due to overvoltage or any other reason. There is provision in the
power panel of the coach to manually isolate the controllers, if required.

Time for Action

PM alternator and controller are tested on test bench for various loading and speed. Power
vs speed readings obtained during testing are as below:

Power
Output
27.5

22.5

17.5

12.5

7.5

2.5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170

Train Speed in KMPH

Above curves shows that PM alternator starts producing around 7KW power at the speed of
20Kmph where as full power output of 25KW is available at 70Kmph. Various parameters at
different speed are as below:
S. No.
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48

RPM
300
350
400
450
500
550
600
650
700
750
800
850
900
950
1000
1050
1100
1150
1200
1250
1300
1350
1400
1450
1500
1550
1600
1650
1700
1750
1800
1850
1900
1950
2000
2050
2100
2150
2200
2250
2300
2350
2400

Open Ckt Output Voltage

U2-V2
U2-W2
V2-W2
74.2
74.6
74.3
88.0
88.4
88.3
98.6
99.0
99.1
111.0
111.5
111.6
123.4
123.9
124.0
136.2
136.8
137.0
146.7
147.0
147.4
159.1
159.8
159.7
170.2
171.0
171.0
183.2
184.4
184.5
195.4
196.7
196.8
207.4
208.4
208.0
219.5
220.2
220.0
203.5
231.4
231.2
244.3
245.4
244.7
255.5
256.1
256.4
269.2
269.0
270.2
140.5
140.5
140.4
146.7
146.8
146.9
152.0
152.8
152.5
158.0
158.8
158.5
164.2
165.1
165.0
170.4
171.0
170.9
175.8
176.9
176.7
182.2
183.3
183.0
187.6
188.8
188.4
194.2
195.2
194.8
200.0
201.0
200.8
206.0
207.0
206.8
212.0
213.0
212.8
218.0
219.0
218.8
224.0
225.0
224.8
230.0
231.0
231.0
236.0
237.0
237.8
241.7
243.0
242.6
248.0
249.0
249.0
253.5
254.9
254.5
259.6
261.0
260.7
265.4
266.5
266.4
271.5
273.0
272.5
277.0
278.5
278.1
283.3
284.5
284.2
289.0
290.0
290.0

DC LinkVoltage
104.0
123.6
138.7
156.2
173.6
191.8
206.4
223.6
239.4
258.3
275.5
291.2
308.0
323.7
342.6
359.0
378.3
196.6
205.7
213.5
221.9
231.0
239.3
247.4
256.2
263.8
272.7
281.1
289.5
297.9
306.3
314.7
323.4
332.9
339.6
348.6
356.3
365.0
373.0
381.5
389.3
397.9
406.0

DC O/P KW
7.2
8.5
9.6
10.8
12.0
13.2
14.2
15.4
16.5
17.8
19.0
20.1
21.3
22.3
23.6
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0

DC O/P Voltage
110
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129
129

Train Speed for LHB

19.9
23.2
26.5
29.8
33.1
36.4
39.7
43.1
46.4
49.7
53.0
56.3
59.6
62.9
66.2
69.5
72.9
76.2
79.5
82.8
86.1
89.4
92.7
96.0
99.4
102.7
106.0
109.3
112.6
115.9
119.2
122.5
125.8
129.2
132.5
135.8
139.1
142.4
145.7
149.0
152.3
155.7
159.0

Field Trials
One set of alternators along with controller as per above scheme is fitted in AC 2-tier coach
no. 05063 which was attached to train no. 04051/52 for non-commercial trials from
14/07/2012. After successful non-commercial trials, coach was put on commercial services
from 08/08/2012.

PM vs Conventional Alternator
PM alternator has few distinct advantages over its conventional counterpart which are listed
below:
a) Lower weight
250Kg as compared to 450Kg of conventional alternator
b) Lower Volume
Almost half of the volume as compared to conventional alternator
c) Higher efficiency
Efficiency of PM alternator with controller is around 90% whereas same fof
conventional system is 70%. This also reduces torque requirement at V-belts
and more power can be produced with same number and capacity of V-belts.
d) Sine wave output
PM alternator produces sine wave output which reduces noise in the system
and also produces fewer jerks on V-belts thereby increasing the life of V-belts.
e) Integrated Precooling System
PM controller has provision for precooling and battery charging when train is
stationary. It eliminates the provision of an additional battery charger on
coach and also provides redundancy as both the controller has provision for
precooling.

Future Scope
As PM alternator fits in the FIAT bogie, this development opens up possibilities of producing
LHB coaches with Self Generating system. LHB coaches which are more safer and has more
speed potential are till now limited to only EOG/HOG power scheme but with this
development all the coaches produced by ICF/RCF can be of LHB type hence IR will be able
to provide more safer and faster services to Indian public in all format of train services.
Further, as PM alternator occupies less space, more powerful alternator (30 or 35KW) can
be developed for ICF type bogies if need arises.