Simulating contact-line / pantograph system dynamics considering the bending stiffness of the contact wire

A further speedup of electric railway systems requires the development of efficient overhead catenary / pantograph systems, guaranteing a permanent energy supply to the fast moving vehicle. Expensive field testing can drastically be reduced by numerical simulation of the catenary / pantograph system dynamics. Advanced mechanical models and related numerical concepts will be illustrated. When high speed behaviour is concerned, a consideration of the lending stiffness of the contact wire, modelling a beam including shearing and bending stiffness, is necessary to attain a meaningful time-development of the contact force between pantograph and contact wire. Whereas numerical expense increases considerabely using this model with respect to modelling the contact wire as a bending free string, the evidence of the results is meaningful even in the range above critical speed. Using a non-linear pantograph model, the time-development of the contact force describing the contact wire in a string- and beam model will be compared, illustrating the necessity to take the bending stiffness of the contact wire into account, when high speed behaviour of the catenary / pantograph system is analyzed.