Resource evaluation of friction pair “contact wire – contact strip”

Abstract

Purpose. Investigate the impact of current collection system parameters and external factors on the resource of friction pair “contact wire – contact strip”. Relevance. The level of electrified railways reliability depends on the reliability and durability of the individual objects of power supply system and the locomotive facilities, in turn, the current collection quality depends on design of contact network and pantographs, contact wires materials, contact strips and external influencing factors. The resource system “contact wire – contact strip” is an important technical and economic characteristics, and its average actual resource is much less established. It means that the actual resource does not reach the optimum value from an economic point. Increasing velocity of the electric rolling stock exacerbates the problem of improving the current collection quality, becomes an actual task of increasing the resource friction pair “ contact wire – contact strip” for mainline railways. Scientific novelty. This work determined the influence structural parameters of the friction pair, the current collection system parameters and external factors on the wear rate of the friction pair “contact wire – contact strip”. Proposed to create a predictive mathematical model that uses the dependence of the influencing parameters obtained in this work to assess the wear and resource of contact wire and contact strips. Practical importance. Developed the device for wear researching of friction pairs in laboratory conditions allows assessing the wear rate of the system “contact wire – contact strip” and their residual resource at different combinations of the friction pair and external factors. The obtained results allow us to construct a predictive mathematical model to evaluate wear rate of the elements of the friction pair “contact wire – contact strip” and identify their residual resource.