Fundamental Study on Impact Oscillations of Rigid Trolley-Pantograph System

The contact problems between a rigid trolley and a pantograph in a current railway system are studied from the viewpoint of nonlinear dynamics. It is assumed that there are the impact oscillations between the rigid trolley and the pantograph due to the corrugated wear of the rigid trolley. The rigid trolley-pantograph system has been modeled with a spring-supported mass excited by an oscillating plate. Using this essential model, the influences of the car speed and the corrugated wear of the rigid trolley on the bouncing phenomena between the spring-supported mass and the oscillating plate were examined theoretically and numerically. Moreover, the experiments are conducted with the essential model, of which the motion takes place in a mechanically similar manner with the rigid trolley pantograph system.