Evaluation of the maximum potential rise in Taipei rail transit systems

This paper evaluates the maximum potential rise on the traction earth (TE) conductor caused by stray currents in the Taipei Rail Transit Systems (TRTS). The stray current from the TRTS will flow into the earth due to the voltage difference along the running rails caused by the traction currents returning to the substations. The potential rise of 0.1 V is admitted in international recommendations as the maximum acceptable value for corrosion protection of utilities outside a dc railway system. Since TRTS is one of the dc-traction rail transit systems, it may cause corrosion or other effects by stray currents to the existing underground metallic structures. As a result, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether the maximum potential rise on the TE conductor caused by stray currents from TRTS is greater than the maximum permissible value 0.1 V or not.