Rigid catenary allows trains to be electrically powered safely, robustly and reliably, with affordable maintenance. Rigid catenary is ideal for tunnel installation because it provides superior safety during traffic and will stop trains from being blocked in tunnels.
Despite the many advantages of rigid catenary, there are still many characteristics in need of improvement. Some possible improvements would be:
- The reduction of the total number of supports or junctions of tunnel vault infrastructure. During the installation of the rigid catenary, due to the weight of the rigid catenary system, a vertical fall appears in the center of the spans, which increases with the length of the span. This natural fall limits, among other aspects, the speed of train operation; and this means that the length of the bays is limited to 10 meters, reaching many farms with maximum lengths even less than 7 meters. The need for many supports makes the final installation more expensive. Decreasing the drop in the center of the bays may increase the length of the same would be desirable to reduce installation costs.
- Decrease vibrations or oscillations at the passing of the pantograph. In railway operations with a lot of frequency of trains passing or in those with double or triple configurations of pantographs, the oscillations of the first pantograph deteriorates the electrical pickup of the rear pantographs. Controlling the oscillations of the catenary after the transit of the pantographs would increase the life of the components and lower the maintenance costs.
- Decrease the electric arcs and the wear of the materials decreasing the variation of the contact forces. During the process of electro-mechanical interaction between the pantograph and the contact wire of the rigid catenary, the mechanical contact forces can oscillate excessively in some situations; generating undesired wear for the maximum values of contact forces and electric arcs, which generate local material fusions and accelerated wear, for the minimum values of contact forces. Decreasing electric arcs and wear would reduce maintenance costs.
The improvement of these and other aspects is therefore desirable in order to increase reliability, robustness and, above all, safety during operation under rigid catenaries.
Improve the performance of your rigid catenary and take it to the next level with CaDOD-100 of INNOVIRIA.
With the Innoviria system you will be able to:
- Increase the distance between supports, thus reducing installation costs.
- Eliminate vibrations at the pantograph pass in less than 5 seconds.
- Decrease the electric arcs and wear to be able to minimize the natural fall between the bays.
- …And much more…
Would you like to install your catenary outside of the tunnel? … Ask us, Innoviria gives you a solution.
Rigid Catenary Innovation Solution 