A Preliminary Study Towards the Understanding of the Pantograph-Catenary Irregular Wear Problem in the Rigid Overhead Catenary System

This paper presents some early-stage works and findings of the irregular wear problem found in pantograph-catenary interaction with rigid overhead catenary system of metro lines. Laboratory tests and computational simulation were conducted to examine the vibration characteristics of the coupled system. It was found that the wear pattern of pantograph strips resembles the mode shape of dominant natural frequencies in the high-frequency range, indicating that resonance happens at the carbon strip and contact wire sliding interface, leading to poor contact quality. Damping treatments were applied to standard pantograph strips, to improve the damping performance of pantograph strips to control high frequency vibration of pantograph strips. Laboratory tests and field tests were carried out to evaluate the damping performance and vibration characteristics of damping treated pantograph strips. It was found that applied damping treatment was able to achieve a maximum of 7 dB of vibration reduction. The worse the initial condition of the pantograph-catenary system, the more prominent the damping effects on the control of high frequency vibration.