காற்று சக்தியில் இயங்கத் தயாராகும் ரயில்கள்!

ரயில்கள் தற்போது நிலக்கரி, டீசல் உட்பட மின்சக்தியில் இயங்கி வருகின்றன.எனினும் காற்றின் உதவில் இயங்கக்கூடிய ரயில்கள் இதுவரை குறைந்தளவே சேவையில் உள்ளன.

இதனை அதிகப்படுத்த நெதர்லாந்தின் தேசிய ரயில்வே நிறுவனம் முடிவு செய்துள்ளது.இதன்படி அனைத்து மின்சார ரயில்களையும் 100 சதவீதம் காற்று சக்தியில் இயங்கக்கூடிய ரயில்களாக மாற்றியமைக்க முடிவு செய்துள்ளது.

இதற்கான அடித்தளம் 2015ம் ஆண்டிலேயே போடப்பட்டுள்ள நிலையில் எதிர்வரும் 2018ம் ஆண்டில் இத்திட்டத்தினை நடைமுறைப்படுத்த அந்நிறுவனம் எதிர்பார்த்துள்ளது. இதேவேளை தற்போது சேவையில் உள்ள காற்றில் இயங்கும் ரயில்களில் நாள் தோறும் சுமார் 6,00,000 பயணிகள் பயணிப்பதாக தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

இவ்வகை ரயில்கள் அதிகபட்சமாக மணிக்கு 120 கிலோமீட்டர் வேகத்தில் பயணிக்கும் ஆற்றல் கொண்டவையாகும்.

 

The advanced 690-kilowatt traction system was developed by CRRC Corp, the country's train-making behemoth, at its Zhuzhou Institute in Hunan province. It will soon enter mass production, said Ding Rongjun, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering who heads the institute.

"Now we have our own permanent magnet synchronous traction system with full intellectual property rights, marking a new chapter in China's high-speed railways," he said, adding that only a handful of countries are capable of manufacturing the sophisticated apparatus, including Germany and Japan.

* new synchronous traction will allow high speed rail to go 50% faster
* new system boasts more power
* simpler configuration
* lower electrical consumption
* more reliable and efficient

Feng Jianghua, deputy director of the institute, said the adoption of the technology will reshape the high-speed railway industry because traction equipment is the most important part of a bullet train.

Currently, most high-speed trains in service in the world are propelled by alternating current asynchronous motors, a traction system first developed in the 1970s.

The Zhuzhou Institute began research and development on permanent magnet synchronous traction technology in 2003 after it noticed that major international train makers, such as Siemens and Bombardier, had launched projects to acquire the equipment, Feng told China Economic Weekly.

The magazine quoted Xu Junfeng, a senior engineer at the institute, as saying that engineers overcame a large number of technical difficulties. China had never looked at the high-tech equipment before the project.

After eight years, engineers completed development in 2011 and installed the advanced traction system on trains running on Subway Line 2 in Shenyang, Liaoning province, as a trial.

The test has proved successful, Xu said.

In December 2013, the institute brought the system to bullet trains, expecting speeds of 500 km / h. Trials were undertaken on several trains in October.

Jia Limin of Beijing Jiaotong University, who heads China's high-speed railway innovation program, said that if everything goes well, trains equipped with the new traction system will become fully operational by 2018.

Compared with an alternating current asynchronous motor, the new system boasts more power, simpler configuration and lower electrical consumption, Jia said.

"The new system has fewer parts than the current traction apparatus, so it is more reliable and efficient," he said.

Sheng Guangzu, general manager of China Railway Corp, has pledged to speed up the development of key technologies in high-speed rail and to design a new bullet train using Chinese standards.