The simulation of pantograph and catenary: a PDAE approach

Abstract

Recently, the coupled dynamical simulation of pantograph and catenary in high speed trains has found much interst. The equations of motion form a partial differentail-algebraic equation (PDAE) that combines a partial differential equation (PDE) for the catenary and a differential-algebraic equation (DAE) for the pantograph. In the present paper we discuss the relation of this PDAE model to current work on the analysis of PDAE's and formulate a benchmark problem to stimulate further research on this topic. The benchmark problem is solved numerically using a semi-discretization in space (by finite elements or finite differences). For time discretization, typical DAE techniques are applied (index reduction, project steps, handling of systems with varying structure).