Performance of three algorithms for the fundamental frequency estimation against 16.7 Hz railways data

Three frequency estimation algorithms are considered and their performance evaluated against real data, represented by pantograph voltage and current signals on AC railways. The three algorithms have different characteristics: the “four parameter sine wave fitting” (4PSF) algorithm is based on LSE against single frequency model, the “phase sensitive frequency estimation” (PSFE) algorithm is based on phase difference against a single frequency model and the “multi harmonic frequency estimator” MHFE is based on LSE against multi-harmonic frequency model. The results show that all algorithms can deal with highly distorted signals with various success and that none of them can be assigned a-priori as the best for a specific task.