Electromechanical interaction between carbon-based pantograph strip and copper contact wire: A heuristic wear model

•This paper presents a heuristic wear model for the contact wire.•This wear model has been tuned using the results of laboratory tests.•Wear of “electrolytic copper contact wire–Kasperovski contact strip” is analysed.•The procedure presented can be used in the design stage of catenary.

Wear due to the sliding contact between a pantograph strip and the contact wire of a railway overhead line has three main contributions: (i) a mechanical one, due to friction, (ii) an electrical one, due to current flow at the contact area and (iii) that due to electrical arcs related to the power dissipated during arc generation. This paper presents a heuristic wear model for the contact wire which accounts for these contributions to wear. After a tuning phase with results obtained on a test rig to evaluate wear for the “pure copper contact wire—Kasperovski contact strip” coupling, the wear model is used in combination with a dynamic electromechanical model to estimate the amount of wear associated with pantograph–catenary interaction.