Open Access

ARTICLE

Dynamic Characteristics of Different Pantograph Structures for Heavy-Duty Trucks Considering Road Excitation

Yan Xu¹, Dietmar Gohlich², Sangyoung Park², William Zhendong Liu³, Ziwei Zhou¹, Haiyang Qu⁴, Weidong Zhu^5,*

1 Faculty of Transportation Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, China
2 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Transport Systems, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, 10623, Germany
3 Department of Engineering Mechanics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, 10044, Sweden
4 Electrical Road System Research Center, CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co., Ltd., Zhuzhou, 412001, China
5 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA

* Corresponding Author: Weidong Zhu. Email:

Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2025, 144(2), 1655-1676. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmes.2025.068771

Received 05 June 2025; Accepted 30 July 2025; Issue published 31 August 2025

Abstract

The emissions from traditional fossil heavy-duty trucks have become a conspicuous issue worldwide. The electrical road system (ERS) can offer a viable solution for achieving zero CO₂ emissions and has high energy efficiency in long-distance road cargo transport. While many kinds of pantograph structures have been developed for the ERS, their corresponding pantograph-catenary dynamic characteristics under different road conditions have not been investigated. This work performs a numerical study on the dynamics of the pantograph-catenary interaction of an ERS considering different pantograph structures. First, a pantograph-catenary-truck-road model is proposed. The reduced catenary model and reduced-plate model transmission method are used to minimize model scale. Three different types of ERS pantograph structures are considered in the model. After validation, the pantograph-catenary dynamics under the influence of truck-road interactions with complex road roughness and different pantographs are studied and compared. The corresponding vibration transmission mechanism is further focused. The results show that the truck-road interaction has a significant effect on the pantograph-catenary interaction, but the pantograph with only one lower and upper arm can isolate the roll vibration motion transmission from the truck to the collector head, which has the best dynamic performance and is suggested for use in the ERS.

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Keywords

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