Performance evaluation of Z source inverter fed locomotive drives with different control topologies

The present day locomotives use three phase induction motors for traction purposes. The locomotives consist of single phase converters and voltage source inverters to control the traction motors. This paper investigates the performance of traction drive for locomotives applications fed by impedance source inverter. In this work, two control topologies, simple boost control and maximum boost control are applied to investigate the performance of drive. The circuit was simulated in MATLAB environment and various parameters were compared under different load torque conditions. It was found that the time taken to reach the steady state speed, the ripple in motor voltage, current and torque and also the voltage harmonics are less in simple boost control topology. Finally proposes that simple boost control topology outweighs the latter for locomotive applications.