Verification of Superconducting Feeder Cable in Pulse Current and Notch Operation on Railway Vehicles

Railway transportation is of safety, convenience, economy, and environmental friendliness. However, with energy issues becoming increasingly important in this century, it is important to assess the situation in the transportation sector. When the superconducting cable is used as a feeder of the railway electrification system, the voltage drop can be significantly reduced. Therefore, the superconducting feeder has many effects, for example, the reduction transmission losses, the improvement of the regeneration factor, and the reduction of substations. We designed superconducting feeder and introduced to the Izuhakone Railway Sunzu line in Japan. After the system was checked from the aspect of cooling and current properties, the train running test was conducted. From the result of switching notch tests, it was found that the current flows continuously via the superconducting cable according to the notch operation. Furthermore, to inspect the influence of superconducting material, a large pulse current test was performed using the transmission equipment of a railway. It can be confirmed that superconductor can be used as railway feeder because the materials can cope with the current change peculiar to railway required for practical use.