Measures to Enhance the Dynamic Performance of Railway Catenaries

Abstract: The pantograph-catenary system is used in railways to transfer electric power from infrastructure to trainset. As the pantograph slides against the catenary, the contact between the two surfaces is not stable due to stiffness variation, propagating wave and other environmental perturbation, especially at high speeds or in multi-pantograph operation. Heavy oscillation can result in poor power-transmission quality, electromagnetic interference, severe wear or even structural damage. So the pantograph-catenary dynamics has become one of the key issues which limits the operational speed and determines the maintenance cost. There are many types of catenary systems in Sweden, which are relatively soft and sensitive compared with the systems in other countries. They work well at low operational speed and have strict limitations to multi-pantograph operation. It is possible to achieve an operational speed of 350 km/h on newly-built high-speed lines, but there is still a large demand for higher operational speed and more capacity on the existing lines.    Many researchers and engineers have made progress to improve its dynamic performance. From the research aspect, many numerical models have been built up to demonstrate the dynamics of the pantograph-catenary system and to unveil the key influencing factors. There have been many applications developed in recent years. Regarding the catenary, high-tensile loads on the catenary and low-stiffness-variation designs are widely used to improve the dynamic performance. Regarding the pantograph, aerodynamic-friendly designs and active-control technique contribute to the development of high-speed pantograph. But all these methods need not only large investment but long out-of-service. Considering the large scale and heavy service duty of the existing lines, it becomes almost impossible to completely upgrade the existing pantograph-catenary systems. So it is necessary to find practical and efficient methods to exploit the potentials of the existing systems to enhance their dynamic performances.    This thesis investigates the dynamic behaviour of the Swedish pantograph-catenary systems and proposes methods for better usage. A numerical study on multi-pantograph operation is performed and the relationships between dynamic performance and some key parameters is established. By studying the multi-pantograph operation at short spacing distance, a method to use the leading pantograph as auxiliary pantograph is proposed to increase the operational speed on the soft catenary system. To ensure operational safety in abnormal conditions, numerical studies on pantograph raising/lowering processes and in catenary overlap sections are performed. By studying the influence of the lumped-mass on the dynamic performance, it shows that it is even possible to implement some artificial tuned-masses on the catenary for dynamic optimization.