A computational procedure for the dynamic analysis of the catenary-pantograph interaction in high-speed trains

The quality of the current collection of high-speed trains is dependent on the compatibility of the catenary and pantograph dynamics and on its implications on the contact force. The design and analysis of these systems using proper computational procedures allows capturing all the relevant features of their dynamic behavior. This work proposes an approach to the dynamics of the energy collection system based on the finite elements method, for the catenary, and on multibody dynamics methods, for the pantograph, integrated via a co-simulation procedure. A contact model based on a penalty formulation is selected to represent the pantograph-catenary interaction. The methodology is applied to the study of high speed train operations with multiple pantographs, as this environment constitutes one of the limiting scenarios for the increase of the operation speed.