Study of aging life for EMU arresters based on aging tests and principal component analysis method

On-board lightning arresters are critical components for ensuring the safety of EMUs operating on high-speed railways. This paper focuses on arresters mounted on EMUs as the research object. Through performance and aging tests (thermal-electrical aging, impulse aging, and high-order harmonic aging) conducted on arresters in operation over different distances and durations, this study examined their aging characteristics and the change patterns in performance parameters, and evaluated the reliability and service life of these on-board arresters. Additionally, an aging life model was established using the principal component analysis method for these arresters. The results show that the calculated evaluation value of the failure thresholds for the five performance parameters of the arresters reach 82 after standardized processing, indicating a service capacity of up to 7.5 million kilometers for new on-board arresters. The study can provide technical support for optimizing operation maintenance and overhaul limits in the subsequent applications of arresters, thereby improving levels of reliability.