Improvement Of Testing Instrument And Experiment And Simulation Research On Coupled Thermal Of Electric Contact Surfaces

Electrical sliding contact of pantograph and contact wire system is actually thefrictional sliding motion, which focuses on physic and chemistry phenomenon and itsinteraction, leading to electric power transmission. The prior electrical slidinginstrument was improved to study frictional mechanism deeply, as a result, the muchmore stable and precise data was obtained. Based on that, the process of pantograph andcontact wire system sliding contact was illustrated in detail. By taking the pantographand catenary system to power supply as the research object, the effect of normal forceon the tribological characteristics of pantograph plate and catenary wire under electricalcurrent were studied. The relationship between sliding plate wear loss and normal forceunder different sliding velocity and electric current was got, and the mechanism offrictional wear was deeply analyzed.The affecting factors of wear loss above are not independent, however.Temperature, as an indirect acting factor, does not only be influenced by relative slidingvelocity, normal force, and physical property, but also exert an inevitable influence onfrictional wear. On the basis of the steady heat conduction theory and consideringunstable conduction of heat, thermal convection of environment and thermal radiation,under the effect of Joule heat and frictional heat, a steady thermal model for copperwire/copper-dipped carbon plate of pantograph&catenary system was created based onANSYS finite element method, which used to simulate what kind of factors caninfluence temperature rise of frictional couples. The results show that the maximumcoupled temperature increases with the increase of electric current and velocity; and themaximum coupled temperature decreases and then increases in the shape of “U”. Amathematic model of heat conduction through contact wire was established, and then thetemperature variation especially under extreme value that cannot be achieved inexperimental surrounding can be got, which can be helpful to railway system.