Abstract
Contact wire is an essential part of traction power supply system in the electrified railway, which on the one hand transmits the electrical energy, and on the other hand plays as a smooth track for the current collection strip. In the daily operation of the electrified train maintenance, the contact wire suffers from the arcing ablation during the pantograph lowering process. Potential contact wire breakdown might take place. In this paper, the surface erosion of the contact wire by the pantograph arcing was studied numerically. A multi-physical model dedicated to the contact wire erosion issues was established, with the process of heat transfer, phase transition, and liquid metal flow taken into account. Characteristics of the surface erosion, the temperature field as well as the flow field under different current conditions were studied respectively. Particularly, the Marangoni effects on molten pool evolutions were examined, which could have a significant influence on the final erosion characteristics. This work might be helpful for the further understanding of the basic physical process of the contact wire erosion by the pantograph arcing, and as well as providing a meaningful reference for the performance improvement of the current collection system.
Highlights
The electrified railway has been developing fast in recent years and becomes an indispensable transportation all over the world
The lowering pantograph arc current is set as 100 A, 200 A and 300 A, respectively
It can be seen from this figure that the maximum temperature of lowering pantograph arc is about 14000 K, and the maximum temperature is located at the top surface of the pantograph strip which is the arc root location of lowering pantograph arc
Summary
The electrified railway has been developing fast in recent years and becomes an indispensable transportation all over the world. The pantograph-catenary system is one of the key components in the electrified railway system.[1,2] The electrified train obtains electrical energy via high speed sliding electrical contact between pantograph strip and contact wire. The electrical contact performance between the pantograph strip and the contact wire is the key factor to determine the current collection quality of electrified train. With the constant increase of train running speed and carrying capacity, pantograph arc occurs frequently and ignites intensely. Intense and high temperature pantograph arc would ablate pantograph strip and contact wire seriously, leading to arc induced electrodes crater and the metal oxide film formed on the surface of pantograph strip and contact wire.[3] The arc induced electrodes crater and metal oxide film would degrade the electrical contact performance.[4,5] studying on the electrodes erosion by the pantograph arcing is of great importance for further improving the performance of the current collection system
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