High strength and high conductive copper-based alloy produced by SPD for contact wires for high speed railway lines - A short review

Abstract

The development of high-speed railway lines, the requirements for contact wires of catenary becomes more essential. The contact wire should be strong, wear resistant and fatigue resistant, and also possess good thermal stability along with high electrical conductivity. At present, copper wires alloyed with cadmium are used. The replacement is more of a necessity since cadmium is a material hazardous to environment, and it is already banned by several countries. Over the last several decades, growing attention has been focused on the development of copper-based alloys with high strength and good electrical conductivity. Novel severe plastic deformation (SPD) procedure, namely equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP), has been applied for obtaining ultrafine-grained (UFG) materials with high strength and good electrical conductivity. This overview mainly focuses on the suitability of ECAPed copper and its alloys for contact wires in high-speed railway lines.