A Flexible MATLAB-Based Simulation Framework for Dynamic Catenary-Pantograph Interaction and Co-simulation

Accurate dynamic modeling and simulation of the catenary-pantograph interaction is required to develop and improve actively controlled pantographs for high-speed trains. Various methods have been investigated to satisfactorily solve the underlying mathematically, numerically, and computationally challenging partial differential equations. This paper proposes a flexible conceptual framework to formulate and solve the dynamic pantograph-catenary interaction problem by arbitrary approximation onsets and solvers. The proposed framework architecture greatly simplifies the comparison of different solution onsets as it separates physical problem definition, problem approximation and representation, as well as the generic solving task. First, the catenary-pantograph interaction problem is defined in a generic manner. Then, pre-processing steps cast the problem into a finite-dimensional system of ordinary differential equations with algebraic constraints. These are solved in time by suitable solvers and the results are post-processed. This tool chain is demonstrated by comparing selected numeric test results from a Finite Difference and a Fourier approximation onset.