Keywords: pantograph-catenary interaction, multi-pantograph operation, raising and lowering, auxiliary-pantograph operation.

Multi-pantograph operation is a convenient and efficient way to operate railway rolling stock and infrastructure, but the influence between the pantographs makes the system more sensitive and vulnerable than a single-pantograph system. When a train passes through special sections, or falls into an emergency condition, it is necessary to lower one, or all, of the pantographs and then raise them up again. In these circumstances, the motion of the pantographs can introduce a sudden impact to the catenary that may change the configuration of the pantograph combination and its dynamic performance. To address the dynamic performance during pantograph raising and lowering, a numerical study on a multi-pantograph operation is performed with the help of a three-dimensional pantograph-catenary finite element (FE) model and an artificial beam along the catenary is used to guide the motion of the pantograph to describe the pantograph raising-lowering operation. The paper studies the following conditions: the relationship between spacing distance and the span length, various pantograph raising-lowering orders, and different operating positions in a span. The results show that the leading pantograph is little influenced by the raising and lowering movement of any pantograph behind it. However, the trailing pantograph is heavily affected by any operation ahead of it. The dynamic performance of the system depends on the pantograph spacing distance and the operational speed but is little affected by the operating position in a span. To study auxiliary-pantograph operation, where the leading pantograph works as an auxiliary pantograph, this paper shows how an optimal setting of the leading pantograph benefits the trailing pantograph and suggests specifying the speed where the leading pantograph gets into, or out of, service to avoid disruption and to skip unfavourable working conditions.

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