A Study on Multiple Pantograph Operations for High-Speed Catenary Contact

Abstract

The pantograph-catenary system represents one of the major barriers to rolling stock interoperability. Traditionally, each country has developed its own overhead equipment, which is reflected in different catenary and pantograph designs. Hence, a unified approval method, able to consider the diversity of existing solutions, is a key subject that must be addressed to provide a competitive railway system. Furthermore, the limitation on the top velocity of high-speed trains is associated with the ability to provide, through the pantograph-catenary interface, the proper amount of energy required to run the trainset engines. If loss of contact exists, not only the energy supply is interrupted but also arching between the collector bow of the pantograph and the contact wire of the catenary occurs, leading to the deterioration of the functional conditions of the two systems. All these situations require that the dynamics of the pantograph-catenary are properly modelled. In this paper a multibody dynamics approach and a finite element method are implemented in a validated computational tool to handle the pantograph and the catenary dynamics, respectively. The performance of two different pantographs, when running on the same catenary, is studied. Multiple pantograph operation scenarios, with different distances between them, are also analysed here. The purpose is to understand the consequences on the contact force characteristics and on the catenary uplift.

Dynamic Modelling of Overhead Power Lines for Electric Trains

“…The majority of pantograph-catenary simulation software uses FEM to solve the Euler-Bernoulli beam equations for the catenary system [11,19,41,[47][48][49]52]. Typically, the only nonlinear effect included in the FEM model is dropper unloading.…”

“…The simplest of the popular pantograph models is the lumped-mass or mass-springdamper model used in [19,41]. It is explained in [48] that the mass-spring-damper constants are chosen to match the experimentally measured frequency response of the pantograph. These models neglect the nonlinearities in the pantograph dynamics, but do not require co-simulation and therefore substantially reduce the complexity and increase the simulation speed.…”

“…In this study, the pantograph was modelled as a mass-spring-damper system [30]. The topology and parameters were prescribed based on the frequency response of the pantograph; they are not derived here, but they were chosen to match the frrequency response The evaluation of the pantograph's parameters is explained in [48]. The lumped-mass model is derived through a series of laboratory tests.…”

A methodology to study high-speed pantograph-catenary interaction with realistic contact wire irregularities

“…The effect of train excitations on the pantograph-catenary interaction performance is evaluated by Carnicero et al [24], Kulkarni et al [25] and Pombo et al [26]. The effects of the track irregularities and wind loads are both addressed by Pombo et al [27] and the multiple pantographs interaction with a high-speed catenary is analysed by the same authors [28][29][30]. A fully three-dimensional interaction methodology is also developed based on the finite element method, for the catenary [31], and multibody dynamics methods, for the pantograph [32][33][34], integrated via an efficient co-simulation procedure [35][36][37].…”

Vibrations of the overhead catenary caused by the passage of a high-speed train through the track stiffness discontinuity

“…The object of many of them is to formulate and test various calculation methods designed to simulate the dynamic interaction between the pantograph and the upper traction network of the electric traction. An extensive review of this type of publication is presented, for example, in the work of the team of prof. J. Pombo [1,12]. In the mentioned works, as well as in the work [11], a detailed description of the conditions of exploitation of traction networks and pantographs, including factors affecting the quality of power collection and the technical condition of the overhead contact line and pantograph contact strips, can be found.…”