Electrical-thermal conduction and distribution characteristics of the catenary system for electrified railway applying electrothermal ice-melting technique

Xiao, Song, He, Yongdong, Zhang, Yuhui, Wu, Guangning, Cao, Ye, Zhang, Xueqin, Hou, Jiefu, Guo, Yujun, Li, Tiangeng, Erneste, Nibishaka, Gao, Guoqiang and Sykulski, Jan K. (2025) Electrical-thermal conduction and distribution characteristics of the catenary system for electrified railway applying electrothermal ice-melting technique. Applied Thermal Engineering, 277, [126809]. (doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2025.126809).

Abstract

The extreme cold weather often sweeps some areas especially with high-latitude all over the world, as the icing and snow-covered phenomenon appears on the surface of catenary for electrified railway, which possibly results in some issues such as the ice flashover of insulators, the brandishing phenomenon of catenary, the pantograph-catenary arcing phenomenon etc., seriously threatening the safety of traction power supply system. So far, some methods like the application of anti-icing chemical coating material, deicing robotics or unmanned aerial vehicles have been implemented in power system. Different from traditional transmission lines, the catenary has complex structural topology involving different components made of diverse materials, therefore the commonly-used de-icing methods can hardly be hardly suitable for catenary. Due to its outstanding deicing efficiency, the electrothermal ice-melting technique is selected herein to mitigated the icing issue of catenary, as for realizing the implementation of this technique it is essential to explore the electrical-thermal conduction and distribution characteristics of catenary, for avoiding the fusing accident caused by local overheating. The thermal conduction characteristics of catenary is demonstrated by Thermal Equilibrium Formula, as the electrical-thermal distribution when applying various excitation with different frequencies is evaluated via the three-dimensional (3D) multi-physical finite element (FE) model, with consideration of the skin effect generated under high-frequency condition. The correlation between electrothermal ice-melting performance and critical influence factors is clarified via a series of tests based on phytotron. Ultimately, for pursuing higher ice-melting efficiency meanwhile avoiding fusing risk, a set of appropriate ice-melting current excitations with different frequencies are recommended, for laying the solid foundation of future applications.

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Contributors

Author: Jan K. Sykulski

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