Objective In recent years, frequent pantograph-catenary faults have posed severe challenges to the operation safety of urban rail transit. Improving pantograph-catenary interaction and keeping it in a stable state have become key research focuses in the industry, which requires further in-depth study.

Method Taking one line of Guangzhou Metro as the research object, the train traction characteristic curve is optimized by adjusting the traction motor’s switching point between the constant torque and constant power regions. The acceleration performance, equivalent main circuit current and total operation energy consumption are compared through laboratory simulation before and after optimization. Furthermore, specific sections on the main line are selected to measure the train operating speed, traction force, traction current and the total energy consumption before and after optimization, and the optimized traction characteristic curve is applied to all trains on the line. Under normal passenger-carrying operation, the average wear rate of the train carbon strips and the energy consumption per hundred vehicle-kilometers over a certain period of time are statistically counted to comprehensively evaluate the practical effect of the improvement strategy.

Result & Conclusion  After implementing the improvement strategy, the average wear rate of the carbon strips of all trains on the certain Guangzhou Metro line decreases from 1.12 mm to 0.81 mm per 10 000 km, representing a reduction of 27.7%. The energy consumption per 100 vehicle-kilometers drops from approximately 180 kWh to 176 kWh, a decrease of about 2.2%. Without compromising train operation efficiency or raising overall operation energy consumption, the proposed strategy significantly reduces the wear rate of pantograph carbon strips.