Dynamic Fatigue Reliability of Contact Wires based on Dynamic Simulation of High-Speed Pantograph-Catenary

This paper proposed a dynamic fatigue reliability method of contact wires based on dynamic simulation of high-speed pantograph-catenary. Firstly, the Weibull distribution was adopted to describe the fatigue life of contact wires so as to build the fatigue reliability model of contact wires. And then 10 finite element models of elastic chain type for contact networks were set up with the EN50367 parameter. Thereafter the stress time of the weakest unit on contact wires was calculated through the finite element simulation. Secondly, the mean value and amplitude of each stress cycle were calculated by means of rain flow counting method, and these values were put into the reliability model to draw the changing curve of the fatigue reliability of contact wires with time. The numerical example showed that the fatigue reliability of contact wires would be less than 0.98 when these wires were used for more than 10 years. The method provided in this paper can be used to estimate the fatigue reliability of contact wires more accurately, and it can be used as a reference for the reliability design of the catenary system and the formulation of preventive maintenance plans.