Wave Propagation in the Overhead Conductor Rail System

The purpose of this paper is to research the wave propagation process in the overhead conductor rail system. The overhead conductor rail system is modeled based on absolute nodal coordinate formulation. The initial state of the overhead conductor rail under initial static load is calculated using the Newton iteration method, and the wave propagation process is numerically reproduced in the model using Newmark iteration. The results show that, during the propagation, there are high-speed waves with small amplitude and low-speed waves with large amplitude. And single node on the overhead conductor rail vibrates at a main frequency of 4.8 Hz, which is the natural frequency of the system. The propagation velocity of the main wave is identified as 92.15 m/s by analyzing the time-space distribution of the wave on the overhead conductor rail system. This paper presents a methodology to research the wave phenomena on the overhead conductor rail system, and the wave velocity identified can be referred to in the following research.