Energetical comparative analysis of IM and PM-brushless drives in light railway transportation systems

With reference to light railways transportation systems, in the paper a comparison is carried out between vehicles equipped with Induction Motor (IM) drives and Permanent Magnet (PM) brushless motor drives. The attention is particularly focused on the deceleration phase of the speed diagram, which consists of an interval of “coasting” followed by a braking interval. The analyses carried out aim to contribute in understanding possible disadvantageous aspects of PM drives if they are taken into consideration to replace traditional IM drives in propulsion systems. In order to comparatively evaluate energetic and dynamic performance, some numerical results are obtained and discussed with reference to different operating conditions of an effective case-study.