Development of efficient ventilation system for WDM2 diesel-electric locomotives

摘要

Ventilation of machines and equipment is an important aspect of locomotive design. Inadequate supply of cooling air can lead to numerous problems in the performance of equipment and affect reliability adversely. On the other hand, inefficientventilation system means extra requirement of auxiliary power which is an avoidable wastage of precious energy. The blowers provided on diesel-electric locomotives manufactured by DLW, for supplying cooling air to traction motors and rectifier, are ofvintage inefficient design. The cooling air distribution system on these locomotives also is not designed to transfer the cooling air from the blowers to traction motors efficiently. Moreover, the ventilation system as a whole is not very reliable.Research, Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) of Indian Railways, Lucknow has undertaken many projects for developing alternative ventilation systems of diesel-electric locomotives with a view to removing the deficiencies in the existing system.This paper familiarizes Indian engineers with the basic of traction blowers and the work done to improve the ventilation system on WDM2, the main diesel-electric locomotive used on Broad Gauge (BG) Railway lines. An attempt has been mode in this paper todescribe the improved RTTM, blower and air distribution systems for the rear truck of WDM2 locomotives.