IEEE Electrification Magazine - September 2013 - 10

of the point of contact with the pantograph must be within a range of 20% around the experimental values of the
same parameters. Finally, once a particular simulation
model fulfills the abovementioned requirements, it can be
considered validated against the standard and can be
used to perform the required simulations to obtain the
certificate of interoperability for any catenary.
The modeling of the two subsystems of interaction, the
catenary and pantograph, is a trendy research topic around
the world. On the one hand, because of the inherent geometric nonlinearity of cable structures, the catenary can be
considered a wide and complex field of research. On the
other hand, the modeling and active control of the pantograph has become one of the most promising objects of
study in high-speed railway systems. Although finite element models are the most unique ones that have proliferated in recent years, certain other purely mathematical
models or lumped systems have also been published. Nevertheless, the European Standard EN 50318 does not declare
any preference in this regard. On the contrary, the theoretical validation step specifically refers to a pantograph modeled by a system of masses and springs with two degrees of
freedom. Such lumped models are commonly used to simulate the dynamic behavior of the pantograph. Despite
their simplicity, these models are accurate enough to collect the dynamics and are much more computationally efficient than other models based on multibody techniques,
either with flexible or rigid e
- lements. However, the model
with two degrees of -freedom is too simple so the simulation of real pantographs is commonly carried out by means
of models with at least three degrees of freedom.
Despite the described validation standard, there remain
doubts about the results of different simulation methodologies. The proof of this is the current interest at the European level-several public and private institutions have
carried out a comparison between different simulation
models against a benchmark of the catenary-pantograph
dynamic interaction. This analysis, presented at the 23rd
International Symposium on Dynamics of Vehicles on
Roads and Tracks in Qingdao (China), reveals the possible
scatter in the results obtained with the standard methodologies validated against EN 50318.

Acknowledgment
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support
of the of the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
by means of the Plan Nacional TRA2009-13912 and the
Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad by
means of the Plan Nacional TRA2012-37940.

For Further Reading
F. Kießling, R. Puschmann, and A. Schmieder, "Contact
lines for electric railways," SIEMENS, 2001.
C. Sanchez-Rebollo, J. R. Jimenez-Octavio, and A. -Carnicero,
"Active control strategy on a catenary-pantograph validated
model," Veh. Syst. Dyn., vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 554-569, 2013.

I E E E E l e c t r i f i c atio n Magaz ine / september 2013

M. Such, J. R. Jimenez-Octavio, A. Carnicero, and
O. Lopez--García, "An approach based on the catenary equation to deal with static analysis of three dimensional cable
structures," Eng. Struct. vol. 31, no. 9, pp. 2162-2170, 2009.
G. Poetsch, J. Evans, R. Meisinger, W. Kortüm, W. Baldauf,
A. Veitland, and J. Wallaschek, "Pantograph-catenary
dynamics and control," Veh. Syst. Dyn., vol. 28, no 2-3,
pp. 159-195, 1997.
S. Bruni, J. Ambrosio, A. Carnicero, Y. H. Cho, L. Finner,
M. Ikeda, S. Y. Kwon, J. P. Massat, S. Stichel, M. Tur, and
W. Zhang, "The pantograph-catenary interaction
-benchmark," presented at the 23rd Int. Symp. Dynamics of
-Vehicles on Roads and Tracks, Qingdao, China, 19-23
Aug. 2013.

Biographies
Jesus R. Jimenez-Octavio (jesus.jimenez@upcomillas.es)
received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees (2009, Best Ph.D.
Thesis in Engineering Award) in mechanical engineering
from the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (UPCo), Madrid,
Spain. He is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and a researcher of the
Applied Research Institute at UPCo, where he works on
different projects related to continuum mechanics. He has
received the Talgo Award for Technological Innovation
2010 for the project "Simulation, Calculation, and Optimization of Railways," and he is currently a member of the
Overhead Contact Line Survey Group chaired by the
-European Railway Agency.
Cristina Sanchez-Rebollo (cristina.sanchez@upcomillas.
es) received her M.Sc. degrees from the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (UPCo) (2010, Best M.Sc. Degree in Mechanical
Engineering Award) and the Universidad Carlos III
(mechanical engineering), both in Madrid, Spain. She is currently a Ph.D. student of the Applied Research Institute at
UPCo, granted by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, and she is also member of the Overhead Contact
Line Survey Group chaired by the European Railway Agency.
Alberto Carnicero (alberto.carnicero@upcomillas.es)
received his Ph.D. degree in industrial engineering. He is
currently a professor at the Department of Mechanical
Engineering (focusing on the topic of mechanics of materials) and a researcher of the Applied Research Institute
at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid. He has
worked in numerical simulation of different engineering
topics, such as electromagnetic field simulation, electric
field simulation, or elastodynamics in active materials.
He specializes in numerical simulation on cable structures, mainly applied to catenary-pantograph dynamic
interaction. He has received the Talgo Award for Technological Innovation 2010 for the project "Simulation, Calculation, and Optimization of Railways," and he is
-currently a member of the Overhead Contact Line Survey
Group chaired by the European Railway -Agency.

http://www.M.Sc http://www.M.Sc http://www.M.Sc

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Electrification Magazine - September 2013