Abstract
The third rail is a critical piece of railway infrastructure that provides a continuous supply of electricity to power mass rapid transit trains. The vibration of the third rail may excite different resonant modes and affect its structural integrity and reliability by degrading the mechanical properties leading to the damaged or missing structural components. This paper examines vibrational characteristics of the third rail of Singapore Mass Rapid Transit system with damaged and missing structural components. Using the mathematical model, the first five, pin-to-pin modes of vibration and natural frequencies were identified and compared with modal and harmonic response obtained from ANSYS finite element models. A good agreement was observed between the analytical and numerical solutions. The study was further extended to study the sagging of the third rail due to structural failure and its impact on collector shoes. It was found that the structural defects could produce resonance modes below 5 Hz. In addition, the sagging and contact force on collector shoes increased by multiple folds when more than 2 claw structures are broken. The methods and the results presented in this article can be used as a tool for predictive maintenance by detecting possible structural failure or defects.
Highlights
Train and railway networks are among the most critical infrastructures for modern transportation and development
The third rail, known as the conductor rail, is the most commonly used method to drive the trains in modern mass transit systems and is considered more efficient and economical compared with the overhead systems [2]
A single-span third rail setup was developed at the NTU-Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) Urban Rail Corporate
Summary
Train and railway networks are among the most critical infrastructures for modern transportation and development. System.It It well known higher train speed increases the the vibration of the [6] and railway tracks [7]. ANSYS and ABAQUS, have been successfully for parstudy and to understand the vibration characteristics of the railway track. Most of the third rail systems research is focused on the electrical system configuration [13], most shoe-gear overhead conductor railson [14,15]. Of thedynamics, third rail and systems research is focused the electrical studied the displacement of the electric shoe-gears and contact force. There has not been much reand conductor rail system as a cantilever with a rotating mechanism attached search to identify the different modes of vibration and frequencies at which they occur. An emphasis was given to understand the effect of different structural failure tural failure scenarios on vibration dynamics for predictive maintenance.
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