An Analysis of Influence Between the Power Feeding Line Insulation and Negative Rail Potential for the DC Ground Fault Protection in the Rubber Wheel System

We have analyzed influence of potential rise in negative bus, which caused by decrease of power feeding line insulation, upon protecting method of DC ground protection device which detecting potential rise between negative bus and ground in order to detect ground fault in the rubber wheel system. For this purpose, we proposed negative potential equation between negative bus and ground and calculated negative potential according to system condition changes by estimating power feeding line insulation changes in steel wheel system and rubber wheel system, and equalizing DC power feeding system when ground fault occurred. Also, in order to estimate negative potential of real system, we modeled the rubber wheel system, and simulated normal status, grounding fault occurrence and power feeding line insulation changes. In normal status, negative potential did not rise significantly regardless of vehicle operation. When ground fault occurred, negative potential rose up over 300V regardless of fault resistance. However, we also observed that negative potential rose when power feeding line insulation dropped down under 1MΩ. In conclusion, our result shows that in case of rubber wheel system unlike steel wheel system, relay will be prevented maloperation and insulation status observation can be ensured when ground over voltage relay will be set 200V ～ 300V.