Development and evaluation of Three-Level Power Converter System using IGBTs with Water Cooling Apparatus for Shinkansen Trains

Power converter systems using GTOs (Gate Turn Off thyristors) are widely used as traction systems for Shinkansen trains. However, it is difficult to reduce harmonic currents of a catenary line, acoustic noise from a transformer and motors of the traction systems, because of the relatively low switching frequency of GTOs.This paper proposes a three level power converter system using IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors) for Shinkansen trains. This system is capable of reducing the harmonic currents of the catenary line, and the acoustic noise, because of the relatively high switching frequency of the IGBTs and the three-level output voltage of the converters. The power converter was installed in the STAR21 (Superior Train for the Advanced Railway toward the 21th Century) which is a high speed testing train for the Shinkansen routes of JR East (East Japan Railway Company). The superiority of the new power converter system was verified by test results.