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Civil-Comp Proceedings
ISSN 1759-3433
CCP: 98
PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RAILWAY TECHNOLOGY: RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE
Edited by: J. Pombo
Paper 188

Optimal Control of Pantograph-Catenary Systems using MatLab

An. Matvejevs1 and Al. Matvejevs2

1Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics Department, 2Engineering Mathematics Department,
Riga Technical University, Latvia

Full Bibliographic Reference for this paper
An. Matvejevs, Al. Matvejevs, "Optimal Control of Pantograph-Catenary Systems using MatLab", in J. Pombo, (Editor), "Proceedings of the First International Conference on Railway Technology: Research, Development and Maintenance", Civil-Comp Press, Stirlingshire, UK, Paper 188, 2012. doi:10.4203/ccp.98.188
Keywords: pantograph-catenary system, mechanical multibody system, parametric identification, controller, adaptive pantograph.

Summary
Contacts between pantograph and catenary are the most critical parts in the transmission of electrical energy for modern high-speed trains. Contact wire oscillations change the combined force between pantograph and catenary, and the contact may even get lost. Therefore special pantographs and catenaries have been developed and further constructive changes are under development. Design criterion includes the permanent contact of pantograph head and contact wire at high speed and the reduction of both aero-acoustic noise and wear. Because of the complicated dynamic behaviour and very high costs for prototypes, all modifications and new design concepts for the pantograph-catenary system are essentially based on dynamic simulation. Traditional approaches focus on the catenary, which is modelled as set of coupled strings and, or beams, whereas simplified lumped mass models are used to describe the pantograph. Nowadays increased computer power allows applications to be considered with more refined pantograph modes (e.g. the elasticity of the pantograph) and active control components in innovative pantograph concepts.

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