Power Electronics and Electric Drives for Traction Applications

1 Introduction

Gonzalo Abad

1.1 Introduction to the book

This book is mainly focused on the field of what is commonly known as the electric drive. Electric drives are very prevalent in our lives. They are used in many applications or devices throughout the world. Wherever we use a device or element in which a kind of movement is involved, that movement will probably be governed by an electric drive. Examples of such kinds of devices include trains, trams, ships, electric vehicles, elevators, washing machines, air conditioning systems, wind generators, pumps, and rolling mills and so on. Moreover, in order to be effective and efficient, the specific characteristics of the drive designed, for instance, for controlling the drum of a washing machine, will be quite different compared to the electric drive, for example, employed for controlling the speed of rotation of the blades of a specific wind generator. However, in essence, in terms of what we would call basic technology, all these electric drives employed in various applications share a common technological structure, which, in order to be optimized, is adapted to the specific needs of each application.

This book is mainly focused on describing the electric drives employed in four common applications or devices that one can find in real life: railway traction (trains, trams, locomotives, etc.), ships, electric and hybrid vehicles, and last but not least, elevators. As already noted, in all these traction applications, ...