Stability analysis of pantograph under frictional force

Abstract

The frictional force acts to the travelling pantograph head in horizontal direction due to sliding of the pantograph head and contact wire. Therefore, vertical motion of the pantograph head is generated by link mechanism of the pantograph. If the coefficient of friction between the pantograph head and contact wire is large, instability of the travelling pantograph could be observed. Although pantographs are modelled as lumped mass system and multi-body system, the unstable behavior of the travelling pantograph was not studied. This study proposes a 2-dimensional pantograph model that considers friction characteristics of the pantograph head based on the multi-body dynamics (MBD) approach. In this paper, a single-arm pantograph for shinkansen train is modelled using the MBD technique. Furthermore, a stability analysis method based on the complex eigenvalue analysis for the pantograph model is proposed. The equation of motion of the pantograph model is derived based on both the differential algebraic equation (DAE) and the linear dynamics equation (LDE). Results of the LDE-based stability analysis of the developed MBD pantograph models are shown. Then the obtained stability is validated based on the DAE-based time history response simulation of the pantograph models.

Keywords

• railway
• pantograph
• friction
• stability analysis
• multi body dynamics
• differential algebraic equation
• linear dynamics equation
• complex eigenvalue analysis