Optimering av kontaktlednings-geometri för kurvor

This project’s birth is a FEM based model for studying the contact forces between pantograph and contact wire on an electric rail vehicle. The real contact wire is made of copper and is usually placed directly above the railway. Studying the pantographs’ interaction with the contact wire is vital in order to be able to e.g. ensure a reliable contact between pantograph and contact wire or to predict wear of the contact strip, which is usually made of carbon. Before building such a model the geometry of the bearing structure needs to be defined, this is given by tables and formulas defined by Trafikverket. The guidelines include distance between bearing posts, maximum dropper distance, maximum stagger, etc.My task was to investigate and build an explicit model for the distribution of the frequency of contact points from the contact wire onto the pantograph in curved segments. When this distribution was all set a study was performed with the aim of finding an optimal lateral wire alignment (stagger) to enable a smooth distribution of contact frequency. This was solved using both Gradient Descent and gradient-free optimization techniques.Finally a model that furthermore took into account the span lengths and the wind’s effect on the positioning of the contact wire was made with the aim of finding a distribution of staggers and span lengths that resulted in a smooth distribution while still electing solutions with longer span lengths and making sure the wind criteria was fulfilled.