Simulation Study on Arc Temperature of Urban Rail DC Pantograph-Catenary and Arc Ablation of Contact Line

Abstract

The high temperature generated by the DC pantograph-catenary arc of urban rail systems will aggravate the wear of the pantograph-catenary system. When the ablation intensifies, it will lead to disconnection accidents on the contact line. In this paper, through the establishment of a pantograph-catenary arc model and contact line arc ablation model, considering the flow of the molten pool, it is reported that the temperature distribution of the pantograph-catenary arc is axisymmetric. With the increase in the arcing time, the maximum temperature of the arc increases. The heat flux density of the arc injection contact line presents a Gaussian distribution and is positively correlated with the arcing time. The high-temperature area of the contact line and the distribution of the molten pool show an approximate arc shape. The velocity of the molten pool shows a symmetrical distribution about the center of the electrode. The area, depth, and radius of the molten pool of the contact line increase with an increase in the arcing time, and the radius of the molten pool is always greater than the depth of the molten pool. The work presented in this paper is helpful to further our understanding of the basic physical process of pantograph-catenary arc ablation of contact lines.