Multipurpose model for pantograph dynamic interaction with flexible or rigid catenary

Railway transportation powered by electrical supply systems is the most employed technology to provide passengers safety and vehicles reliability during the running operations. Both the flexible and rigid catenaries are employed to power up trains through interaction with pantographs. Within this context, principal issues are wear estimation and pantograph-catenary contact loss prediction. Therefore, various modelling approaches are adopted to build simulation models for these phenomena prediction, particularly related to the contact force exerted between the pantograph and the catenary. In this paper a new and versatile analytical model of the pantograph dynamic interaction with the catenary is presented. The model is characterized by a low computational load and the pantograph model can be interfaced with both rigid and flexible catenary models. Therefore, the proposed model is a versatile solution to reproduce the pantograph-catenary interaction behavior. Simulations have been carried out in both the contact sceneries and the results are reliable and in accordance with the system dynamics.