Dynamic Characteristics of Electric Shoegear and Conductor Rail System Considering the Track Irregularities

The electric shoegear-conductor rail system (the shoe-rail system) is one of the electric energy collection devices for metro vehicles. A good interaction performance between the electric shoegear and the conductor rail is essential to ensure the current collection quality and operational safety. The conductor rail irregularities and vehicle-track excitation (induced by track irregularities) are the major disturbances to the shoe-rail interaction. Only the vertical effect of the vehicle-track excitation has been considered in previous studies, which cannot reproduce the realistic behavior of the shoe-rail system. To address this deficiency, this work attempts to build a spatial vehicle-shoe-rail system coupling model, including the disturbances from both the conductor rail irregularities and vehicle-track excitations. The numerical accuracy is verified by comparison with the measurement data collected from Guangzhou Metro Line 5 (Jiaokou to Wenchong section). Then, the effects of conductor rail irregularities, speed, shoe-rail structure parameters, and track irregularities on the interaction performance of the electric shoegear-conductor rail system are analyzed. The results show that the maximum contact force exceeds the safety threshold at a speed of over 120 km/h. The frequency analysis of the contact force at different speeds indicates the necessity to avoid the resonance caused by the match between the span passage frequency and the dominant natural frequency. The stochastic analysis indicates a visible dispersion in contact force standard deviation excited by track irregularities. The dispersion increases from 2.2% to 21.8% with the degradation of the track quality from level 6 to level 1. The statistical maximum of contact force will exceed the safety threshold with poor track quality.

Automated summary

The electric shoegear-conductor rail system is an important device for collecting electric energy in metro vehicles. This study aims to investigate the interaction performance between the shoegear and conductor rail by considering the disturbances from conductor rail irregularities and vehicle-track excitations. The results show that the maximum contact force exceeds the safety threshold at high speeds, and resonance caused by frequency match should be avoided. The analysis also reveals that the contact force standard deviation increases with track irregularities, leading to a potential safety issue.