Study on the delamination wear and its Influence on the Conductivity of the Carbon Contact Strip in Pantograph-Catenary System under High-speed Current-carrying Condition

Abstract Delamination wear has more influence on the wear behavior and surface properties of carbon strip comparing with other wear mechanisms under high-speed current-carrying conditions. The arc discharge between the contact pairs, the wear characteristics of contact strip and the conductivity of the worn surface of the carbon strips were studied under high-speed from 100 km/h to 350 km/h, current-carrying of 250A and different normal loads. The worn morphology of the carbon strip was observed utilizing a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The experimental results show that the increase of arc discharge obviously changes the wear mechanism of the contact strip and the strength of the arc discharge directly determines the occurrence of the delamination wear. Besides, the values of the wear rate of the carbon strip are different significantly due to the difference in wear mechanism of the contact strip. Moreover, the delamination wear increases the resistivity of the surface of the contact strip. To minimize the wear rate of the contact strip and maintain a good conductivity, the applied normal load should close to arc discharge suppressive load, which was increased with the increasing of the sliding speed.