High-Frequency Vibration Analysis and Optimization of Irregular Wear of Pantograph Carbon Strips

The irregular wear of carbon current collector pantograph strips increases the railway maintenance costs and introduces safety hazards in the railway operation. This paper presents a method for analyzing the irregular wear of carbon strips with numerical dynamic analyses and modal tests. The carbon strips were studied in laboratory tests, and an equivalent numerical model for the investigation of their irregular wear and performance improvement was established. The results from the computational simulations were evaluated based on the laboratory results, and the correlation between the high-frequency vibration and irregular wear of the carbon strips was studied. The irregular wear contour of the carbon strips coincides with the high-frequency mode shape according to the experimental and numerical results. Moreover, the dynamic design for carbon strips was optimized with the validated computational model. The results suggest that the optimized schemes effectively mitigate the irregular wear of carbon strips.