Electromechanical interaction between carbon-based pantograph strip and copper contact wire: A heuristic wear model

Wear due to the sliding contact between a pantograph strip and the contact wire of a railway overhead line has three main contributions: (i) a mechanical one, due to friction, (ii) an electrical one, due to current flow at the contact area and (iii) that due to electrical arcs related to the power dissipated during arc generation. This paper presents a heuristic wear model for the contact wire which accounts for these contributions to wear. After a tuning phase with results obtained on a test rig to evaluate wear for the pure copper contact wire-Kasperovski contact strip coupling, the wear model is used in combination with a dynamic electromechanical model to estimate the amount of wear associated with pantograph-catenary interaction. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.