Arc Contact Loss Rate Estimation for Shinkansen Trains with Pantographs Connected to Bus Cables

Abstract

This paper proposes an arc contact loss rate estimating method for Shinkansen trains with pantographs connected to bus cables. For the speedup of Shinkansen, it is necessary to judge whether the contact loss rate exceeds its standard value. As the standard of contact loss rate is provided from the viewpoint of contact strip wear caused by arcs, it is important to measure the amount of arc. The optical type contact loss measuring method which detects the contact loss by arcs is suitable for this purpose. It is difficult, however, to measure contact loss by this method in the daytime, because of the influence of outdoor light. To solve the above problem, we have developed an arc contact loss rate estimating method by using a contact loss simulation program on the basis of the complete contact loss rate measured by the current type contact loss measuring method which is effective in the daytime. Furthermore, we measured the contact loss rate simultaneously by the current and optical type contact loss measuring methods in the running tests of Shinkansen trains, and confirmed the validity of this estimation through a comparison of measured and simulated results.