Deterioration and Thermographic Analyses of Electrical Units in Diesel Locomotive

Abstract

The electrical units of diesel electric locomotives, which were used for over 30 years, were characterized for deterioration evaluation through insulation resistance measurement, degradation testing, and infrared thermography method. Especially, an infrared camera and thermocouples were employed for the evaluation. The thermocouples were attached on high-voltage cables connected to traction motors, for in-situ measurement of abnormal heating during test running. After test running, the thermographic images were obtained for the inspection of high-voltage cables using the infrared camera. The thermographic results were quantitatively analyzed, and compared with temperature changes during running. In this investigation, various analysis techniques for the safety characterization of diesel electric locomotives have been introduced, and the analysis results have been used to provide the deterioration or wear information in current locomotive systems.