Research into fault location methods for DC railway traction system

There are two common methods applied in the traction line fault location, the travelling wave method and the impedance method. Each method has advantages and disadvantages. It is difficult to achieve optimized goal with only one method. Therefore, this paper combines the two algorithms to improve the accuracy of fault location. MATLAB/Simulink software was used to test and validate the proposed fault location approach. Various fault conditions were simulated by varying fault location, using different fault location methods, on a given subway traction power supply system model. After synthetically analysis the enhanced accuracy simulation results are deduced, and the integrated simulation results have been proved to be highly accurate. The combining algorithm in the fault location has promising future in the practical application.