Experimental Study On Morphological Characteristics And Plasma Parameters Of Pantograph-Catenary Arc

The offline between pantograph and catenary is more and more frequent with the aggravation of vibration in pantograph and catenary system as the increasing of operation speed in high-speed railway, putting forward higher requirements for the service performance of pantograph and catenary system. And pantograph-catenary arc, could not only accelerate the aging of the contact materials, but also affect the safety of the on-board equipment because of its higher harmonic, becoming the critical issue in the studies of pantograph and catenary system. While, it is scarce to understand the characteristics of pantograph-catenary arc roundly just rely on electrical parameters and visual studies. How to characterize arcing intensity, what is the connection between the intensity and arc plasma characteristics (such as arcing temperature) and how these parameters change under different operation conditions are unclear and badly in need of in-depth studies. So, it is very useful to realize the damage mechanism of arcing plasma through the researches on the electrical characteristics and plasma parameters of pantograph-catenary arc.In this paper, based on the pantograph-catenary arc test device, the voltage and current waveforms of pantograph-catenary arc was test by oscilloscope and the morphology of arcing was synchronously collected using CMOS high-speed camera experimentally. The motion state of pantograph slide in the process of the vibration of pantograph and catenary system, as well as the dynamic arcing process during one half AC cycle were analyzed comprehensively. Related information of arc images was extracted by using digital image processing techniques, arc shape and intensity were characterized by arc area and perimeter, the corresponding relationship between arc morphological characteristics and arc power was analyzed, thus, the quantification of dynamic arcing process was achieved. On the other hand, radiation spectrums of arc plasma were collected by using spectrometer, its characteristic spectral lines were found and the temperature of arc plasma was calculated through Boltzmann diagram method based on the theory of arc radiation.Furthermore, the change rules of morphological characteristic parameters and temperatures of arc plasma under different operation conditions were studied, the influences of vibrating gap distance and arcing current on arc area, perimeter and temperature were explored and the changing reasons of relevant characteristic parameters were analyzed by experiment results together with arc theories.