Influence of reciprocating distance on the delamination wear of the carbon strip in pantograph–catenary system at high sliding-speed with strong electrical current

Abstract The staggering running of the modern electrified railways in the horizontal plane was simulated to study how the stagger affects the friction and wear properties of the pure carbon strip in the present work. The reciprocating sliding distance A of the carbon strip is defined and used to show the degree of the stagger in this work. A series of friction and wear tests were carried on a high-speed block-on-ring tester at different reciprocating sliding distances A . The test results indicate that both the friction coefficient f and the wear rate W s of the pure carbon strip are affected by A . The arc discharge energy increase with increasing A , especially when the bigger reciprocating sliding distance of the carbon strip A is bigger than 30 mm. Based on SEM image and EDX image, the mechanical wear is mainly consisting of the adhesive wear and the surface scratch, and the mechanical wear reduces but the erosion wear increases with increasing A at high sliding speed with electric current of 250 A. There are delamination wear, oxidation and Cu transfer at the two limit positions of the reciprocating sliding of the carbon strip. Keeping good contact of the contact pairs at two limit positions of the reciprocating sliding is a direct way to reduce the delamination wear of the pure carbon strip.