Transportation Research Electrical Laboratory 

Objective

It aims to reproduce, in detail, the same mechanical structure of transmission of an ETR500 bogie and their mechanical torsional oscillations in order to study the interaction between the external forces, i.e., electromagnetic force, friction forces, and internal forces like elastic torques.

Short description

The simulator is mainly composed of a mechanical transmission unit  (motor, gearbox, wheel-set) fixed on a mobile frame and four wheels set on rigid axle. The transmission and the mobile frame lean  on a couple of wheels by means of a wheel-set,  which represents a pair of driving wheels of the locomotive. In order to obtain different touching forces between the pairs of contacting wheels there has been added a mass fixed on the mobile frame. The flywheels represent the inertia of translating   masses, which is proportionally direct to the mass of the real train. The simulator is also composed of two additional spoke wheels in case it is necessary to simulate the elasticity of the rail.  The propulsion system consists of inverter and induction motor. The motion resistances are simulated by an air-brake, which gives rise to a braking force independent of the speed, and by a dc generator, feeding ballast resistances, which gives rise to a force linearly dependent on the shaft speed. 

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Objective

It aims to reproduce the electrical power flows of dc-double track tramway line during regenerative braking operation of  Sirio-vehicle equipped on-board with energy storage device. It is possible to simulate regenerative substation making use supercapacitors devices, too.

Short description

The simulator is mainly composed of electrical substation, the double track supply line and the power train of vehicles.  The primary feeder is composed of variable auto-transformer with a diode unidi- rectional rectifier. The rectified voltage is equal to 435  V. Two proper variable resistors are  placed in parallel in order to simulate the variations of the double track line resistances according to the vehicles movement. The electrical drives of the simulator consist of two dc/ac voltage source inverters and two induction motors with rated powers of 5.5 kW  and 11 kW  respectively, simulating the electrical drives of the light transportation vehicles. The stationary storage system is realized by SC modules interfaced with the dc traction line  by means of a three-leg full bridge 20 kVA dc–dc converter.

Objective 

Test and characterize power train of electrical traction drives in the power range up to 250 kW, with dc voltage supply up to 4 kV.

Short description

The test-bench is mainly composed of 1MW medium voltage ac-dc electrical substation with a dc-voltage regulation up to 4 kV and maximum dc-current of 250 A .  The primary ac-feeder is composed of a three-phase three-winding transformer 9kV/400V.  Each secondary winding supplies a group of ac/ac conversion with a dc-intermediate stage. Each group consists of thyristor unidirectional rectifier whose feeds two inverters connected in parallel. The ac output of each inverter feeds one of the two primary windings of a further three-phase three-winding transformer with transformation ratio unit. The ac outputs of the two groups are arranged in series via two half-windings which feed off respectively the secondary of two three-phase three-winding transformers 400V/1000V which outputs are rectified by individual rectifiers diodes. Each diode-rectifier can be arranged in series or in parallel in order to get the desired dc voltage. The test bench is completed with a 180 kW asynchronous electrical drive that works as a brake with a maximum speed of 4500 rpm and maximum torque of 200 Nm.

Objective 

Assess the efficiency and charging performance of UltraFast Charging Systems using an auxiliary stationary energy storage devices based on Lithium Ion technologies.   

Short description

The EV charging station architecture, based on the electric scheme of the DC Bus architecture integrated with 0.1kWh Lithium Ion Capacitor (LiC) and 22 kWh LiFePO4 storage devices, allows the decoupling of the DC load from the AC supply network by means of the DC bus with voltage range 480V-690V. In this way the stationary energy storage systems work as a power buffer interposed between the grid and the charging vehicles. The proposed charging architecture is characterized by two-stage conversion with AC/DC and DC/DC converters. In particular the electric power, which is required to perform the ultrafast recharge of the battery pack, is mainly composed by two terms. The first one is the power flux coming from the main grid and goes through the AC/DC converter of 20 kVA rated power. The second one is the power flux coming from the LiC buffer and goes through the DC/DC converter of 90 kW rated power (35V-750V, 120A). A second DC/DC converter with same rated power is used for simulating the charging and discharging operations of EV vehicles. The EV is simulated by a 12 kWh Lithium Ion Batteries. 

Objective 

Assess the efficiency and charging performance of fast charging commercial system and making comparison with lab-prototyping station.

Short description

The Terra multi-standard DC charging station 23 is a configurable single, dual or triple outlet 20 kW fast charging station. The output voltage rage is 50V-500 Vdc with maximum dc-current of 50 A. Its flexible multi-protocol design supports CCS, CHAdeMO and AC functionality depending on the individual charging needs of each customer. Designed for park-and-charge, the Terra 23 is ideal for use at car dealerships, offices, commercial parking locations and company car parking. The Terra charging station 23 combines industry standardization with fast charging technology to support all current and next generation vehicles. Its multiprotocol design allows for easy tailoring to support CCS and CHAdeMO 1.0 for DC fast charging, as well as the EN61851‑1 standard for AC charging (www.abb.it).