Flexible Pantograph Collector Modeling and Its Effects in High-Speed Catenary-Pantograph Interaction

In high-speed railways, the electric current is transmitted from the power supply to the high-speed train via the pantograph mounted on the train and the catenary system erected along the track. The current collection efficiency of high-speed trains is directly determined by the sliding contact stability between the pantograph and the catenary. Previous studies widely assume the pantograph to be a lumped mass model, which is regarded to efficiently represent the low-frequency behaviour (below 20 Hz). But this approach fails to accurately capture the flexibility of the pantograph head’s strip, which has important implication on sliding contact at high speeds. A hybrid-pantograph model, incorporating a lumped mass framework and a flexible dual-strip, is validated through pantograph head modal testing. The model’s accuracy is verified against experimental results. The comparative analysis with repect to the traditional lumped mass model reveals that the hybrid model can describe the impact of the pantograph’s low-frequency pitch motion in contact force. Furthermore, the high-frequency fluctuations in contact force and loss-of-contact phenomena related to the pantograph head elasticity, which are neglected by the lumped mass model, can also be captured by the hybrid model. To satisfy the demand of numerical accuracy at higher speeds, the impact of pantograph pitch motion and the pantograph head flexibility must be incorporated in simulations.