OPTIMIZATION OF THE ASYNCHRONOUS TRAC-TION DRIVE OF A LOCO-MOTIVE BY REDUCING THE TEMPERATURE OF THE ELECTRIC MOTOR ROTOR WINDINGS

On freight locomotives, asynchronous traction drives operate under heavy-duty conditions with limited cooling intensity, which contributes to overheating the windings and thermal breakdown of their insulation. Therefore, a more detailed study of the thermal state of the traction asynchro-nous motor is necessary, as well as of the methods to prevent its overheating, which leads to rapid wear of the rotor windings and their insulation. Conse-quently, a key task is to determine the influence of the rotor slot shape, which in turn defines the cross-sectional area of the winding bars on the thermal state of the traction asynchronous motor. Based on the research analysis of domestic and foreign scientists, various cross-sectional shapes for the rotor winding bars are considered, such as rectangular, trapezoidal, blade-shaped, pear-shaped, and bulbous ones. For each cross-section of the bars, the authors calculate thermal performance indicators, based on which they propose an optimal cross-section variant that will reduce the temperature of the rotor windings during operation of the traction asynchronous motor.