Grounding Grids Corrosion Evaluation of Electrified Railway Based on Two‐Stage Optimization Algorithm

Abstract

Due to the complex soil environment and continuous traction ground return, the electrified railway grounding grids (ERGG) are easily susceptible to corrosion, which seriously threatens the safe operation of the traction power supply system (TPSS). In this paper, the corrosion evaluation model is presented based on electrical network theory. In order to solve the equations with multi‐variable and high‐dimension characteristics of the model, a two‐stage optimization (TSO) algorithm is proposed. In the first stage, the CPLEX solver (CPLEX optimizer produced by IBM) is adopted to obtain the resistance value of multiple branches, which provides the initial solver and search scope for the next step. In the second stage, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to determine the optimal solution so as to minimize the node potential difference. Finally, a corrosion experimental system is designed and established to verify the effectiveness of the above algorithm. The results show that TSO algorithm can accurately diagnose the corrosion state of grounding conductors and adapt to the various scenarios of ERGG. © 2024 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.