Abstract
Pantograph arcing in electrified railway systems not only reduces the power collection quality of a locomotive but can also damage pantograph strips and overhead lines (OHLs). Most research detects pantograph-to-OHL arcs based on onboard voltage/current measurements, pantograph cameras, and so on. The use of onboard voltage/current data, though being cost-effective, rarely reflects arc locations along OHLs. This article develops an arc positioning method, which matches the position-dependent resonant frequency (RF) of an OHL with the RF extracted from voltage measurements in a pantograph arc event. A particular 20-km DC railway line supplied by two substations is first modelled in MATLAB/Simulink, with the model effectiveness being assessed based on voltage measurements in an arc event. Then, the OHL-related RFs estimated by the model are validated by the Tableau formula and discussed alongside impacts on RFs based on line models, locomotive locations, and line lengths. These evaluations permit the generation of an RF curve that links OHL-related RFs with arc locations. The arc positioning method is tested based on the pantograph arc events presumed at various positions along the 20-km line, showing errors within 0.2 km at certain locations. The ability to determine arc locations will permit periodic inspections to be performed on the determined line sections.
Highlights
T HE electrification of rail transport has played a major role in decarbonization through increased energy efficiency and reduced reliance on fossil fuels [1]–[3]
When pantograph arcing is determined at a particular pantograph, the resonant frequency (RF) curve produced for double-pantograph modes in Fig. 21 can be compared with the RFs captured from onboard measurements to estimate the pantograph arc location along the overhead lines (OHLs)
In this study), the amplitudes of OHL-related RFs are largely dampened by the filter at the traction substations (TSSs) output, making it difficult to detect the OHL-related resonance from the Vp spectrum
Summary
T HE electrification of rail transport has played a major role in decarbonization through increased energy efficiency and reduced reliance on fossil fuels [1]–[3]. The arc positioning method proposes that the location is achieved by matching the OHL-related RF determined for different locomotive positions with the RF estimated from the voltage measurements during a measured pantograph arc event. The pantograph arc location estimation method proposed here, starting from the perspective of RFs in DC railway power systems, exploits the relationship of the OHL-related RF with the locomotive position along an OHL. It could provide a new idea for determining pantograph arc locations and line sections requiring inspections based only on the onboard V –I data and encourage the development of onboard monitoring devices that permit capturing the OHL-related RFs from V –I measurements.
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