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Creep and wear study for contact wire of direct current catenary: comparison between Cu-ETP and CuAg0,1 contact wires

 

The increase of the speed and of the capacity

in the railway operation requires an increase of the performances

of both rolling stock and infrastructure. This paper

is focused on the needed characteristics of a 3 kV d.c.

catenary to assure a good quality of current collection, even

in the condition where two pantographs are in contact, for

speed greater than 200 km/h. The wear behaviour of both

contact wire and contact strip is taken into account for the

analysis of catenary performances. In particular, in this

work, an experimental study in laboratory of the creep and

wear behaviour for two different materials of contact wire

(electrolytic copper Cu-ETP and copper-silver alloy

CuAg0,1) is presented. The laboratory analyses have been

used to obtain an heuristic model for the wear of contact

wire that allows, in combination with a software for the

study of the dynamical interaction between pantograph and

catenary, to evaluate the wear for the two considered catenaries,

providing a comparative evaluation of their performances

  • Ottobre
2013
Num. 10
Pag. 847