Validation of simulation approaches for catenary-pantograph dynamics

Abstract

Nowadays, major upgrades in the high speed trains network are being carried out not only in Europe, but also all over the World. Thus, research on high speed railway overheads dynamics is increasing its relevance as the speed of the trains rise to challenge air transportation. Two different approaches for the computation of the dynamic interaction between the pantographs and railway overhead lines are compared in this paper. A finite element approach is presented and compared with another simplified model based on mass-spring systems. The main purpose of this comparison is the analysis of the suitability and limitations of these different methods considering European validation standards as reference criteria. At the same time, the examination against the European Standard EN50318:2002 reveals another original contribution of this paper, since scientific literature is not plenty of validated models yet.