Effect of Design Changes in Railway Catenary-Pantograph Systems on Power Collection at High Speed

Using a GE-635 computer program developed for the U.S. Department of Transportation, a study has been made of the effect of changes in the catenary-pantograph system on the quality of power collection at high speeds. The study explored the effect of: (a) Sag between towers, (b) pantograph spacing, (c) stiffness of the tower support, (d) damping and stiffness of the pantograph, (e) stiffness of the contact spring, (f) dropper stiffness, (g) dropper spacing. It was found that all of these have a significant effect on the constancy of the contact force between catenary and pantograph. By proper choice of system constants, the contact force variation can be substantially reduced. A basis is provided for selecting suitable system constants for a given range of operating conditions.