Real-time impedance monitoring of moving metal contacts

• Main Author: Yee, Nicole Jia Le
• Other Authors: See Kye Yak
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/75342
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) is one of the main transport systems in Singapore which is used by over 3 million commuters daily. In the latest General Household Survey, more than half of the Singapore’s resident working population commuted to work by Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) and/or the public bus. With the expansion of the MRT network in the upcoming years, MRT will become the 'preferred mode' of travel. As a result, the reliability of MRT is of utmost importance for the long-term sustainability of the Singapore’s transportation network. In the recent years, there has been a rise of major MRT breakdowns. One such issue is the dynamic electrical contact between the Current Collector Devices (CCD) shoes and third rail. Hence, to ensure a reliable electrification system for MRT, it is vital to detect in advance any abnormal behaviours of the electrical contact between the CCD shoes and third rail so that preventive measures can be taken, improving the reliability of the system. This report explores the real-time dynamic impedance characterization of moving metal contacts, which are the CCD shoes and third rail, based on the in-house developed rotating test jig, which is scaled down from actual MRT system. The key highlights of this project are the development of software for data acquisition using LabVIEW to obtain different data sets while varying different parameters (motor speed and spring tension), and changing the position of the collector shoes and creating of MATLAB programming to study the effectiveness of contact between the two moving metal contacts. After which, the real-time dynamic impedance will be extracted using another MATLAB programming and the correlation between the impedance and the various parameters of the moving contacts will then be evaluated. Two port network, with inductive coupling probes methodology by A/P See Kye Yak is used primarily for the purpose of dynamic impedance characterization.