Search Results (11)

The geological structure in western China is complex, and rigid catenary systems are commonly used for pantograph power supply in railway tunnel construction. Due to the space constraints within tunnels, the aerodynamic characteristics and fluid–structure interaction effects between pantographs and catenary systems directly affect train operational safety. Numerical simulation analysis of the pantograph–rigid catenary interaction in tunnels is revealed. In the pantograph, the connecting rod areas endure high pressure and are prone to fatigue damage, necessitating structural strength optimization. The rigid catenary exhibits laterally symmetric vibration with high torsional stiffness, meeting operational requirements. This study provides theoretical support for design improvements of pantograph–catenary systems in tunnel environments. Full article

The condition of a catenary is significant to ensure a high current collection quality. Owing to the dynamic interaction between the pantograph and the catenary system, the vibration of the pantograph can be used to analyze the condition of the catenary system. Therefore, we developed a novel diagnosis system based on the correlation between catenary defects and pantograph vibration. The proposed system is capable of detecting the type and location of commonly encountered defects in rigid support catenary systems. Catenary positioning coefficient and enhanced sample entropy methods were proposed for the extraction of defect features, and subsequently, linear discriminate analysis was used to diagnose the type and location of the catenary defects. Finally, the proposed defect detection and diagnosis system was applied to a commercial metro line, and the results verified the reliability and effectiveness of this diagnosis system. Full article

In this study, a multibody system (MBS) computational framework is developed to determine the exact location of the contact point and wear prediction resulting from the pantograph–catenary interaction. The railroad vehicle models in the MBS computational framework comprise rigid-body railroad vehicles, rigid-body pantograph systems, and flexible catenary systems. To avoid incremental rotation, the nonlinear finite element absolute nodal coordinate formulation is used to model a flexible catenary system in the MBS computational framework. To avoid co-simulation processes, the rigid-body railroad vehicle and the pantograph and flexible catenary systems were integrated into the MBS algorithms. The pantograph–catenary interaction is modeled using an elastic contact formulation developed to include the effect of pantograph–catenary separation and sliding contact. The proposed MBS approach evaluates the location of the contact point, contact force, and normal wear rate (NWR) from the mechanical and electrical contributions. This investigation considers the vibration caused by a crosswind scenario and determines the numerical result in the case of a steady crosswind scenario. The steady crosswind scenario contains the advantage of pantograph–catenary aerodynamic design, and the vibration of the catenary system remains significant after the excitation of a steady crosswind. In the case of a steady crosswind, the higher value of the steady crosswind effect significantly increases the mean contact force and the NWR from the mechanical contribution. After crosswind load disturbances, the mean contact force decreases, but the standard deviation of the contact force increases. Therefore, the NWR from the electrical contribution increases significantly. However, the total NWR increases with the crosswind velocity. Full article

The rigid catenary system is widely used in tunnels to power electric trains via contact with a pantograph. Due to gravity, the contact wire normally has a sag that may affect the dynamic interaction performance with a pantograph. To reduce the contact wire sag, the most efficient measure is to improve the moment of inertia of the conductor rail, which is used to clamp the contact wire. Six new types of conductor rail with large moments of inertia are developed based on a conventional conductor rail. Then both the static and dynamic analyses are conducted to investigate the performance of the new types of conductor rail with a big moment of inertia. The conductor rail’s 3D solid finite element model is built using a finite element approach. The vertical deflection and the stress distribution are comparatively analyzed among different types of conductor rail. The analysis results indicate that the vertical deflection and maximum stress are significantly reduced when using the conductor rail with a large moment of inertia. The best performance is observed when the conductor rail of case 1 is used. The maximum sag is reduced by 28.37%, and the maximum stress is decreased by 27.76% compared with the conventional conductor. Finally, a pantograph model is included to evaluate the dynamic performance of the conductor rail with large moments of inertia. The results indicate that contact force fluctuation is significantly reduced after the conductor rails with large moments of inertia are presented. The conductor rail of case 1 shows the best performance, which can reduce the contact force standard deviation by 32% and 27% at speeds of 160 km/h and 200 km/h. Full article

To maximize the utilization of ocean resources, shorten the return period of investment and directly supply energy to the fishing cage, this paper performs a preliminary study for a state-of-the-art concept integrating a floating offshore wind turbine with a fishing cage. An octagonal semisubmersible rigid fishing cage with a slack catenary mooring system is designed to match the NREL 5 MW offshore baseline wind turbine. Combined with the blade pitch controller, fully coupled aero-hydro-elastic-servo-mooring simulations are performed through FAST and AQWA to explore the dynamic performance of the integrated system. Free decay conditions, uniform wind with irregular and regular waves, and turbulent wind with irregular waves are tested. The results showed that the integrated system works normally at the operating conditions and exhibits different dynamic characteristics for various scenarios. Additionally, the study on the influence of mooring line length indicates that the increasing line length can significantly affect the cage surge motion and the maximum and mean values of the upwind line tension at fairlead. Specifically, the maximum surge motion with a 924-m-long line is 404.8% larger than that with an 880-m-long line. When the line length increases by 5%, the maximum and mean line tensions decrease by 45.7% and 47.7%, respectively, while when the line length increases by 10%, the maximum and mean line tension decrease by 52.9% and 54.2%, respectively. It should be noted that the main purpose of this work is to conduct a preliminary study on this integrated system, aiming to provide an idea for the conceptual design, modeling and simulation analysis of this integrated system. Full article

This paper presents the vibration characteristics of a pantograph–catenary interaction in a rigid catenary system. Both computational simulation and laboratory tests are carried out to evaluate the frequency contents of pantograph strips. Based on the observation that irregular wear is characterized by the consistency between the pantograph strips’ wear pattern and the mode shape of their dominant modal frequencies, it is deducted that resonance occurs at the pantograph strip and the contact wire interface in the high frequency range. By applying damping treatment to the pantograph strip, and hence improving its damping property, a reduction of 7 dB in the total vibration level at the sliding contact can be achieved, as verified through field tests. It is also found that the worse the initial condition of the pantograph–catenary system, the more prominent the damping effects on the control of high-frequency vibration for irregular wear problems. Full article

In this study, the dynamic response of a multiconnected floating solar panel system with a vertical pontoon were studied under various scenarios. First, a floating solar panel pontoon is modeled by combining nine single-unit vertical cylinders (arranged in parallel, horizontally and vertically, 3 m apart from each other). Each cylinder will be considered a rigid body, and they are connected to each other with a frame, so that they can oscillate together. Each floating solar panel pontoon was connected to a steel pipe, and a hinged connector was attached to the connecting point of each steel pipe, while it was fixed at each pontoon. In this study, as a floating solar panel system, a 10 × 10 system was adopted at a water depth of 50 m. Furthermore, a catenary mooring system with steel wire rope was installed to enhance its station-keeping capability. As an environmental load, wave excitation force, under normal operating and extreme conditions, was considered. To confirm the dynamic behavior of the system, a connector boundary condition sensitivity test was conducted under a 0° heading (west to east). It has been proven that an unexpected dynamic response along the sway, roll, and yaw directions is observed in the hinged connector case, due to the second generated moment caused by the movement of the facilities. Furthermore, judging from extreme simulation results, the larger the external environmental loading, the greater the dynamic response of the system, due to amplified wave excitation forces. Finally, under the multiple mooring line failure scenario, the dynamic response of the system is significantly amplified, due to the loss of mooring tension, except for the roll response. Full article

In this paper, the authors present a mathematical and engineering model to optimally calculate the dynamic equation on the pantograph–catenary interaction when considering a rigid catenary with an overlapping span. The model starts from well-known methods adapted to the special features of rigid catenary. As a result, an algorithm for the integration of a dynamic equation based on explicit methods is provided. Moreover, from this algorithm, a reliable, efficient, and user-friendly software tool called RICATI is developed in order to approach the model to railway-based companies. The results show the usefulness of an application. such as RICATI, to check the behavior of the configuration initially established for a catenary, allowing solutions to be obtained for the problems encountered when simulating the passage of the pantograph (or pantographs), not only for the overlapping span but also for the entire catenary. That encourages us to continue future works. Full article

Local failure of one or more components due to abnormal loading can induce the progressive collapse of a building structure. In this study, by the aid of available full-scale test results on double-span systems subjected to the middle column loss scenario, an extensive parametric study was performed to investigate the effects of different design parameters on progressive collapse performance of beam-to-column connections, i.e., beam span-to-depth ratio, catenary mechanism, and connection robustness. The selected full-scale double-span assemblies consisted of fully rigid (welded flange-welded web, SidePlate), semi-rigid (flush end-plate, extended end-plate), and flexible connections (top and seat angle, web cleat). The test results, including load-deformation responses, development of the catenary mechanism, and connection robustness, are presented in detail. The finding of this research further enables a comprehensive comparison between different types of steel beam-to-column connections since the effects of span-to-depth ratio and beam sections were filtered out. Full article

This paper focuses on motion analysis of a coupled unmanned surface vehicle (USV)–umbilical cable (UC)–unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) system to investigate the interaction behavior between the vehicles and the UC in the ocean environment. For this, a new dynamic modeling method for investigating a multi-body dynamics system of this coupling system is employed. Firstly, the structure and hardware composition of the proposed system are presented. The USV and UUV are modeled as rigid-body vehicles, and the flexible UC is discretized using the catenary equation. In order to solve the nonlinear coupled dynamics of the vehicles and flexible UC, the fourth-order Runge–Kutta numerical method is implemented. In modeling the flexible UC dynamics, the shooting method is applied to solve a two-point boundary value problem of the catenary equation. The interaction between the UC and the USV–UUV system is investigated through numerical simulations in the time domain. Through the computer simulation, the behavior of the coupled USV–UC–UUV system is analyzed for three situations which can occur. In particular, variation of the UC forces and moments at the tow points and the configuration of the UC in the water are investigated. Full article

The rigid body swing is an important problem for steel catenary risers (SCRs). In addition to many other important issues, the transverse flow direction response is studied in this paper. By extending the load terms of the large deflection slender beam equation, the load of suspension point in the z direction, Morison and rigid body swing are superimposed on the beam equation. On the basis of the above work, a Cable3d subroutine is written to complete the task. Then the structural response is simulated and verified by the Lissajous phenomenon and spectral phase analysis. On the basis of verification, the response is analyzed from an angle of three-dimensional space and the influence coefficient is adopted to evaluate the effect of rigid body swing. The importance of loads is determined by spectral analysis. Phase curve and the change of vibration direction are analyzed by higher orders of frequency. The results show the verification of Lissajous and spectral phase analysis are feasible. The analysis of the spatial response shows the vibration direction of the 140th node is in the same direction as the rigid body swing vector, so the interaction is relatively of more intensity and the influence coefficient is relatively larger. This influence interval of rigid body swing displacement statistical analysis is −0.02 to 0.02 and the effect is weak. The spectrum analysis indicates there is no resonance between the main load and the bending vibration, and the analysis also shows the main influence load of the transverse flow response in this paper is the top load in the z direction. According to phase analysis, the load has a high order effect on the spectral phase curve of the structure. This paper has drawn a conclusion that rigid body swing has limited effect on transverse flow response, however, it has a relatively strong impact on the middle region of the riser, so it plays an influential role on the safety of the riser to some extent. The key point for this paper is to provide qualitative standards for the verification of rigid body swing through Lissajous graphs, which are central factors to promote the development of rigid body swing. It is hoped that the above research can provide some reasonable suggestions for the transverse flow response simulation of the steel catenary riser. Full article