MODELING AND CONTROL OF PANTOGRAPH CATENARY SYSTEM

Abstract

High speed trains permit faster travelling between long distance destinations, making it an easy and comfortable way of travelling. The pantograph is the component of the traction system that collects electrical current from the cable system above i.e. the catenary, to the loco drive system. The interaction between the pantograph and the catenary is the most important factor affecting the quality of energy transmission between the substation and the loco drive system. The current collection enhancement is a key requirement for increasing the speed limit in railway traction system. As the train speed increases, the interaction between the pantograph and the catenary become more important. The dynamic interaction can cause the variation of the contact force around the mean value. The dynamic contact force variation, superposed to the mean contact force, can cause contact losses, arcing and sparking, with a deterioration of the quality of current collection and an increase of the electrical related wear, thus becoming a limiting factor for the maximum train speed. Hence an optimization of both pantograph and catenary should be carried out in order to improve their performance. In order to achieve this, a state-space mechanical modeling of an elementary Pantograph-Catenary (PAC) system has been carried out and its electrical analogous model is designed and fabricated. Further, the simulation studies of the PAC system, as an active-control problem, has been carried out in MATLAB-Simulink using design data from the first model work. Here conventional PID and artificial intelligence techniques namely Fuzzy logic, ANFIS, and Fuzzy PID are used for active control of PAC system. All the controllers are then compared in order to minimize the contact force variation.