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Project information

Simulation of the wind effect on the catenary-pantograph interaction of high-speed trains

A. Carnicero J.R. Jiménez-Octavio L. Cerrada C. Sanchez-Rebollo

January 2010 - December 2012

Funding entity Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación


The project aims to increase the little current knowledge that exists on the wind effect on the contact wire of railway catenaries and its influence on the dynamic interaction catenary-pantograph. Despite the fact that wind effect on cables is quite well-known, however, there is no much information about the wind effect on the dynamic interaction between catenary and pantograph and how the galloping of the catenary can affect this process.
This subproject tries to obtain numerical models that provided with experimental data allow to understand the real effect of this phenomenon on the contact force between the catenary and the pantograph. The contact force between these two systems determines the quality of the energy collection. On one hand this contact force should be high enough to guarantee that there are no contact losses in order to avoid the production of electric arcs and the consequent damage in the contact wire and the pantograph. On the other hand, the contact force should lower enough inr order to decrease the wear of the elements of the collecting system. Hence, the interest of studying the phenomenon of the vertical oscillations produced by the lateral wind. The models obtained would help to understand the effect of this phenomenon and its relationship with the different geometrical and mechanical parameters of the railway overhead.
The aim of the project is to make an approach to the problem at two levels: the first one will consist of simplified models, computationally economics, that allow the understanding of the basic physics of the problem and the second one will develop more complex models and with a high computational cost that allow to learn about the cases which are considered of interest using a more realistic approach.


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